Segment: Onslow Town
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane
TX Date: February 24th, 2019

Trevor explores the Pilbara town of Onslow, a quintessential coastal expression of the Pilbara with history, charm and much to explore.

• Onslow sits just 259km South West of Karratha or a short 2 hourflight north of Perth.
• It was first settled as a town servicing a small port, the Ashburton river offered graziers the chance to send wool from nearby sheep stations to Perth and beyond… the original town was subject to flooding though and not ideally located so it was moved to the current townsite leaving a ghost town in its wake.
• The town has a brilliant Museum, the Goods Shed. Here you can see relics of the past and a timeline of history in the region.
• The town was named after the then chief justice of WA Sir Alexander Onslow back in 1885 and its modern history is what most people know about. Oil and Gas was discovered here back in the 1960s and one of the biggest projects undertaken here was the Wheatstone LNG project which was discovered in 2004 and started shipping liquid natural gas in 2017.
• The enormity of the gas fields off Onslow should never been underestimated as they are estimated to be valued at $180B to Australia’s gross domestic product and will employ well north of 30,000 people through its lifespan but it’s not the only natural resource that people love here…
• If you talk to anyone who has visited the region they will rave about the coastal environment, it is absolutely stunning, long white beaches with incredible sunsets and some simply amazing fishing.
• Onslow is also the gateway to the Mackerel Islands, one of WA’s jewels in the tourism crown. Yet mostly undiscovered by the majority of Western Australians. This group of islands has accommodation and activities that offer a simply sublime authentic West Australian holiday.

www.ashburton.wa.gov.au
www.chevron.com/projects/wheatstone