Welcome to the Pilbara
The Pilbara mostly makes the news for the mountains of iron ore extracted each year – enough in 2020 to build more than 10,000 Sydney Harbour Bridges.
The bioregion should also be famous for some of the world’s oldest rocks and fossils, one of the world’s most diverse reptile faunas, probably the world’s most diverse subterranean communities, and some of the world’s most enduring human cultures. These are values of global significance. The Pilbara is also outstanding, particularly for an arid region, for its richness of mammals, plants and invertebrate groups like snails and spiders.
The foundations of the Pilbara’s immense biological, cultural and economic wealth – and its beauty – are its ancient and diverse landscapes.
Conservation opportunities in the Pilbara abound – the values are outstanding, most of the threats are manageable and, with native title claims mostly settled and access rights established, the Pilbara’s Traditional Owners are strengthening their capacity to more fully resume their traditional custodial responsibilities to manage country.
The unique species of the Pilbara
Aboriginal-managed land
The role of the pastoral estate
Crown land and government