Colour and excitement at the Karratha FeNaClNG Festival 2009

01 August 2009

The crowd enjoyed hours of entertainment including rides, local bands, fireworks, the Tug-o-War and Iron Man competitions, and the annual Float Parade.

Gwen Stirling, who works for Rio Tinto Marine, Dampier, was one of a number of hard working volunteers from the Dampier Primary School Parent's and Citizens Association who spent endless hours cutting, painting and gluing to produce their amazing float, which won 4th prize and $500, that will go towards new play equipment for the school.

"It was both excellent fun and exhausting work getting the float ready, but we had such a fantastic day and just to see the kid's faces was worth it," Gwen said.

"It was also great to get the kids involved to help create our masterpiece which was made from many clever and resourceful ideas. The sun was made of plywood and foam, and the fish from 20 meters of chicken wire and thousands of cut up plastic bags. It was a huge school and community effort."

Rio Tinto, who donated $10,000 towards the festival, was also on display.  We couldn't be missed with an ore car on show marking the joint stall from Iron Ore and Dampier Salt, which attracted an estimated 5000 people.

The name FeNaClNG (pronounced fee-nack-al-ling) is a composite of the chemical symbols for the three sources of mineral wealth in the Pilbara: Fe: Iron; NaCl: Salt; and NG: Natural Gas.