Onslow

By special request from JL, who worked here as a civil engineer and set up Onslow Salt.

This is a selection of ancient machines currently on display in a jumble outside the museum:

On the way out of town, I stopped by one of the solar salt ponds. The stock piles of industrial salt are brilliant white on the horizon as they await transportation along the jetty by conveyor belt,  for loading onto ships to Japan.





The salt forms slowly on the edge of the seawater ponds and blows about in the breeze. It tastes salty and slightly sweet as well.

The following info is copied from the Mitsui website:

In 2006, Mitsui acquired the Onslow salt field. This site is located 530 kilometres north of Shark Bay and began shipment of salt in 2001.

Salt (sodium chloride) is an industrial chemical extracted from the sea by solar evaporation, and is a fundamental product in chemical and food-related applications. Traditionally used as a preservative in the food manufacturing industry, salt is also the key raw material for chlor-alkali factories that produce caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), chlorine and soda ash.

Mitsui's two salt farms produce some of the highest quality solar marine salt (sea salt) in the world. Our fields are also ideally located to export bulk shipments to Asian markets.

Mitsui is committed to running sustainable, profitable and environmentally responsible salt fields. Our goal is to be a reliable and competitive supplier of salt to the Asian market well into the future.