The Harsh Reality

Whenever I've heard people talking about living in the Pilbara they have always said 'it's a harsh environment' 
And until we moved here I assumed it was just the heat that made it so harsh. 
But it's not. The heat is such a small part of the harshness of the environment it's almost forgotten. 

Don't get me wrong, it gets hot up here-bloody hot. Hovering between 44-48 degrees for the entire summer school holidays. Everyone hides inside with the aircon and makes sure they don't need to leave the house between 9am-2pm. Kids are let outside about 6pm to play as its 'cooled down' to 34 degrees by then. 

There are so many other things that make this environment so harsh, each one annoying, scary or just plain irritating. This morning I was reminded of the possible dangers of living in the Pilbara. 

As I was dropping Bradley off at pre primary another little boy arrived, as usual he had ridden his bike to school and his mum pushed his twin siblings in the pram. This morning the boy was visibly distressed and told the relief teacher they saw some 'bad dogs that scared us' then he burst into tears.
There are lots of dogs in town but I don't actually know of anyone that has dogs that would chase/scare/attack a little boy. As the boys mum came inside she snuck up beside the teacher and said they had 'an encounter with a dingo' on their way to school. 
There are plenty of dingos that live out this way and most of the time they don't come into town. But so I've heard about once or twice a year  they do venture a little too close to town and can cause some trouble. And it seems this little boy, his mummy and toddler twin siblings had gotten in this dingos way. They weren't attacked or harmed physically but I don't think that little boy will forget his experience any time soon. His mum seemed quite shaken up and close to tears as well. I didn't like to pry while they were still so upset so I don't have the full details but it was a reminder to me of the place we live and the cautions we have to take in our day to day lives. 


Apart from dingos what else makes the Pilbara such a harsh place to live? 

The most obvious one is, of course, snakes! I thankfully have never seen one but I know they are around and since we live on the edge of town I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I turn around or lift up the couch or pull out a chest of drawers and find a snake. Also giant lizards, we have had one of those on our back door and it was so big and I made hubby go and chase it away. 

The tap water. It is disgusting! So full of calcium and chlorine it tastes like you're drinking water from a public swimming pool, so instead we drink bottled water. The calcium leaves white marks on all our outside toys. Our car needs to be washed and then dried every single time otherwise it gets white marks all over it. My skin gets so dry that my lips crack, my legs get all flaky and I get eczema flare ups on my SCALP!! 

The bugs. I'm not a bug person so this was always going to be a weakness for me, but the bugs up here are gigantic!! Grasshoppers are the size of rulers (almost!) crickets, moths, spiders, you name it we've got it. And all at least twice the size of 'city bugs' 

Ants. Don't ever leave a SINGLE crumb on the bench top or God help you, you will be spraying and cleaning for the next 3 days. Doesn't matter how many times you get the pest guy out or how often you spray they ALWAYS come back. Like tiny little warrior Devils. They dig through the grout in the tiles in the bathroom and laundry leaving little sand piles around. They sneak through the pantry and cutlery drawers. They even get my toasted sandwich maker in the cupboard if I've left a single crumb on it!!! I definitely have to be a much cleaner person in the Pilbara than in the city. No more 'oh I'll just leave these dishes till morning' you either do them straight away or suffer the consequences. 

Money. Ok so this isn't technically an 'environment' thing but it's annoying. Living in a mining town it's safe to say that at least 90% of the town is on a salary of greater than $100,000. With 90-95% of all our bills paid for us. I get it, we are very fortunate, we get given a house, free electricity and water. We can water our gardens 24/7 if we like and never have to worry about putting the air con on for fear of a huge bill. But just because we're all on high incomes shouldn't mean the shops can blindly rip us off. 
The local hardware stores sells more than just hardware but my goodness! The price they charge for some of their kids toys, esky's, tools and homewares is ridiculous. 
The local cafe you would be looking at a good $15-$20 per person for a tacky take away lunch. 
"Fast food" vans in town, let's put it this way. In Perth we could do takeaway for our family of 4 (excluding the baby) for an easy $40. Now it's more along the lines of $60 for one takeaway night. Or from the local restaurant which does AMAZING Thai food we would be looking at $80-$100 depending on whether or not we let the kids 'splash out' and get a seafood dish. Compared to $70-$80 on a massive Chinese takeaway meal in the city. Needless to say we eat a lot less takeaway up here. So I guess that's not exactly a bad thing, but for those extra busy days or days when I'm sick it's just not possible to have an extra takeaway night per week. 
Kids clothing-$40 for a baby romper anyone?! $25 for a kids craft set?! 
Online shopping is my saviour up here. Even including postage costs it still works out cheaper to buy online. 

And on the topic of postage. The last and possibly one of the most annoying things of this town (not all Pilbara towns are the same) is the bloody post office. Run by a couple of old, brain dead numb skulls who 'don't have a hurry bone in their body' (as I was once told by someone i knew) they are slow, annoying, rude, and just plain inconvenient. We have a PO Box as that's the best way to not get your mail lost up here and we decided to get a big one as I was planning on lots of online shopping. However if they ever actually put a package in my PO Box it would be a bloody miracle! Instead they stick a stupid card in and I have to go inside every single time! And then you have to wait in line which can often be out the door! And wait. And listen to them try and chat to everyone. And complain about how hard their slow paced life is, and how people complain about them and ta 'not fair'. And shuffle around like little old men that can't walk anymore. It's infuriating! And Mail has never taken so long to reach me. It can take 1-2 weeks for a simple small parcel to make it through sorting. If you ever need something in a hurry-too bad. 



But all this is just the bad side. The harsh reality of life in the Pilbara. 
Some days, when I find more ants, or we run out of drinking water or my skin feels like crap I get frustrated and have a 'I wanna leave this town' moment. But 99% of the time I love it here. It's a friendly town, the people are great, the schools are pretty good for a country town, there is so much on offer for the kids and we are so close to so many amazing places in the top end. We have explored and gone places we never would have gone if we didn't live in the Pilbara. And we are planning many more trips to come while we are here. 
Waking up every morning and seeing the beautiful Mount Nameless through your front window and living through beautiful winter mornings with clear blue skies and perfect 25 degree days is just bliss! 
As harsh as this environment is I LOVE living in the Pilbara.