Port Hedland - Who We Are

Port Hedland is a dynamic town in Western Australia’s beautiful North West located approximately 1,800km north of Perth. We are home to around 16,000 people from diverse cultural backgrounds and cover 11,844 square kilometres of the Pilbara region.

Our original inhabitants, the Kariyarra people, call the place Marapikurrinya for the hand shaped formation of the tidal creeks coming off the natural harbour.

Our lifestyle is relaxed and our location on the ocean provides for a variety of leisure activities. Our two main residential centres, Port and South Hedland, offer a range of community services including cultural, recreation and shopping facilities.

The Wedgefield Industrial Area contains a variety of light and service industry premises and the iron ore crushing and shipping facilities are features synonymous with our rugged landscape, along with the expanded port facilities.

We are proud to be Australia’s largest bulk export port with Pilbara Ports Authority recording a record annual tonnage throughput of over 633.5 million tonnes in 2015/16 with 460.4 million tonnes throughput at Port Hedland.

Our role is well established on the national and international stage, attracting internationally prominent resource companies and contributing at a nationally recognised level to the broader Australian economy.