Hamersley Range

The traditional Aboriginal owners of the area that the range runs through are the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples.[2]

In 1999 a small range within the Hamersley was named the Hancock Range after the Hancock family, who were pioneers in the area. The Hancock range is east of Karijini National Park in a region of broad valleys and peaks that rise to almost 1,200 metres (3,937 ft). The Hancock Range is close to Mulga Downs Station, a property owned by the Hancock family and where Lang Hancock is buried.[3]

The range runs from the Fortescue River in the northeast, 460 kilometres (290 mi) to the south. The range contains Western Australia's highest point, Mount Meharry, which reaches approximately 1,249 metres (4,098 ft) AHD. There are many extensively eroded gorges, such as Wittenoom Gorge. The twenty highest peaks in Western Australia are in the Hamersley Range.[4] Peaks in the range include Mount Bruce (1,234 metres (4,049 ft)), Mount Nameless/Jarndunmunha (1,115 metres (3,658 ft)), Mount Reeder Nichols (1,109 metres (3,638 ft)), Mount Samson (1,107 metres (3,632 ft)), Mount Truchanas (1,148 metres (3,766 ft)) and Mount Tom Price (775 metres (2,543 ft)).[5]

Karijini National Park (formerly Hamersley National Park), one of Australia's largest national parks, is centred in the range.

Paraburdoo and the Hamersley Range from the air

A cave in Juukan Gorge, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) from Mt Tom Price, is one of the oldest in the western Pilbara region, and the only inland site in Australia to show signs of continuous human occupation through the Ice Age.[6]

Mining company Rio Tinto received ministerial consent to damage the site in 2013, but a year later, an archaeological dig discovered the site was more than twice as old as previously thought and rich in cultural artefacts, including sacred objects. One particularly significant finding was a length of plaited human hair, woven together from strands from the heads of several different people, about 4,000 years old. DNA testing revealed that the hair had belonged to the direct ancestors of Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people alive today. However, the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA) does not allow for mining consent to be renegotiated on the basis of new information.[6]

The cave was ultimately blasted along with another Aboriginal sacred site on 24 May 2020.[6]

The range contains large deposits of iron ore, producing a large proportion of Australia's iron ore exports. It is predominately associated with banded iron formation.[7][8][9] Western Australia's major iron producers have mines, communities and railways that occur along the range.[10] Rio Tinto operates several iron ore mines within the range, including Mount Tom Price, Marandoo, Brockman, Channar, West Angelas, Mesa A mine, and Paraburdoo. Over 100 million tonnes of iron ore is removed from the range every year.[11]

• Karijini National Park
• Ophthalmia Range

• Marshall, Lloyd (1966) New Iron Age in the Hamersleys in the Weekend News, Sept. 3, 1966.
• Powell, C. M.; Horwitz, R. C. (1994). Late Archaean and Early Proterozoic tectonics and basin formation of the Hamersley Ranges (PDF). Geological Society of Australia (WA Division), Excursion guidebook 4. ISBN 0-909869-90-1.