The mining town of Newman in the Pilbara region of Western Australia is a place where people can make big money - and spend it quite as easily. A small serve of steamed rice in the local Chinese restaurant sets you back nine dollars and a main meal cost more than 20 dollars. The same restaurant stopped catering for lunch - not because of a lack of customers but because of staff shortages. The Thai restaurant opposite faces the same problem. It seems almost impossible to find people willing to work in a restaurant. There is much more money to be made "on the hill". The "hill" is actually not a hill anymore but a huge hole, the biggest single open cut iron mine in the world. Once an imposing 805 metre-high mountain on the outskirts of Newman, Mt Whaleback today resembles a decaying tooth with a massive cavity 5.5 kilometres long, 1.5 kilometres wide and 420 metres deep.

The town of Newman lies in the far east of the Pilbara, a region the size of France but with a population of only about 52,000. This region in the semi-arid north of Western Australia is incredibly rich in iron ore and is driving the current resources boom. Towns like Newman, Karratha, Tom Price, Port Headland or Paraburdoo only exist because of mining. Without its mineral riches, the region would probably be almost devoid of people.

The effects of the resources boom are felt throughout the region. Meal prices are just one indicator, real estate prices another. Even car rental firms have adapted to the boom: most of their 4WD vehicles are equipped with flags and orange warning lights on the roof, as required by safety regulations by the mining companies. Nowadays it is impossible to distinguish between mining personnel and tourists in the Pilbara.

Most likely occupants of rental 4WD vehicles work for mining companies because tourism is also a "victim" of the mining boom. There is a lack of accommodation for tourists in the region - most rooms are occupied by the mining industry - and there are hardly any tour operators who offer excursions into the Pilbara. There simply is no need for tourism as an economic force. Mining generates more than enough jobs and money. Without a doubt, tourism is on the backburner in the Pilbara despite the fact that the region is blessed with extraordinary natural beauty.

Less than 200 kilometres northwest of Newman lies Karijini National Park, a nature reserve known for its deep and dramatic gorges in the northern part of the park. It is the striking colours, however, that characterise Karijini National Park. Ancient rocks coloured in the dark red of dried blood contrast with the golden shine of the omnipresent spinifex grass, the deep blue sky and the blinding white trunks of Snappy Gums.

It is in this park that the effects of the resources boom on tourism show a rare positive aspect: The new Karijini Eco Retreat, owned by the Gumana Corporation, is financed by mining royalties paid by Hamersley Iron to several indigenous communities. Juliette Pearce-Tucker from the corporation sees the mining boom in a positive light: "Mining really helped our families, helped us to stay on our country." She sees the resort not so much as a business to earn more money but to create employment, education and training possibilities for her people. And it works for the mining industry too: The retreat offers miners and their families a place for recreation and relaxation.

The resort, with over 100 spacious and comfortable safari tents, is ideally situated to explore some of the dramatic gorges. Close by, Joffre Gorge, Weano Gorge and Hancock Gorge wait for adventurous and reasonably fit visitors. Exploring these spectacular gorges is like a trip into the bowels of the earth. Down there, the long history of the region lies exposed for visitors. In the depth of Hamersley Gorge for example, the exposed rock strata is folded and twisted like puff pastry, interrupted and sheared by a clearly visible fault line.

It is impossible to escape geology in the Pilbara. Geologically one of the oldest regions of Australia, the region is in fact a leftover from one of earth's earliest continents. With the oldest rocks formed a staggering 3,600 million years ago, the Pilbara holds quite a few records. Stromatolites, the world's oldest fossils, and the world's oldest evidence of a meteorite hit, are found in the Pilbara. The huge enriched iron ore deposits however are "only" about 2,700 Million years old.

The mining of those deposits can be experienced on two mining tours - the Mt. Whaleback Mining Tour, run by BHP Billiton, or the mining tour in Tom Price, run by a private company. Both tours give visitors an idea of the scale of the mining operations and a glimpse into where some the riches that drive the Australian economy actually come from.

Stubbornly and against all rational thinking, it is also tourism that the handful of people still living in the abandoned asbestos town of Wittenoom pin their hopes on. Large yellow signs on the way to Wittenoom inform travellers: "Warning. Blue Asbestos present in Wittenoom area. Inhaled asbestos dust may cause cancer." It is a warning not to be taken lightly. The ghost town, degazetted in June 2007 and therefore officially nonexistent, once formed the centre of the asbestos mining industry in the Pilbara. The access to nearby Yampire Gorge, where most of the abandoned asbestos mines are situated, is now closed. Apart from the occasional visitors who stop at the Gem Shop where lumps of blue asbestos form part of the exhibits, the town is dead quiet. Every now and then a gust of hot thermal winds kick up dust. The urge to keep the windows closed and the air conditioner set on internal cycle is strong. And so is the urge to get out of town.

The well-maintained unsealed road from Wittenoom to the coast leads along the southern escarpment of the Hamersley Range and through spinifex covered plains to the second major nature reserve in the Pilbara: Millstream Chichester National Park. Springs from an aquifer fill a series of large pools and form a lush oasis at the base of the Chichester Range. The pools are surrounded by enormous paperbark trees and palms, relics from times long ago, when rainforest covered the region. The springs are also the source of water for the towns along the Pilbara coast

From the water rich reserve of Millstream Chichester National Park to the coast is a short hop of about 100 kms. Here the small town of Dampier forms the gateway to one of the most interesting stretches of the Pilbara coast. It is October and very surprisingly there is still water left in rock pools in a shallow gorge bordered by piles of rust-coloured granite boulder. Lush green rock figs bring life into this world of stones. Dragonflies zip through the air. Deep Valley, roughly 100 kms northwest of Millstream, is found on the Burrup Peninsula that juts out into the Indian Ocean near the town of Dampier. The Burrup Peninsula, actually a large island connected to the mainland by a causeway, contains a priceless treasure. Hidden in the rusty brown hills is the biggest collection of ancient petroglyphs on the planet, forming "Australia's greatest cultural monument", according to rock art expert Robert G. Bednarik. It is here where ancient art of world significance clashes with Australia's insatiable hunger for energy and progress. The Burrup Peninsula is also the site of Australia's largest industrial estate. The loser in this clash is the environment and the invaluable cultural heritage.

In a hidden valley near a fertilizer plant lie numbered rocks with petroglyphs on them, fenced in and most face down. They were relocated in the 1960s, when Woodside Petroleum built its first gas processing plan there. Currently the company is expanding its operations and is moving another estimated 165 rock art sites. The Woodside plant is also considered the largest polluter in Australia. Its acidic emissions, not so much the physical destruction or relocation of art, cause the biggest threat to more than a million petroglyphs.

Off the Burrup Peninsula lies the Dampier Archipelago, consisting of 42 uninhabited islands. This pristine archipelago is one of the unknown pearls of the Western Australian coast. The islands contain numerous rock art sites and the surrounding turquoise waters are full of marine life. Mainly locals venture out between the islands to fish. Coral trout is especially sought after but hooking the tasty fish is one thing, getting it out of the water is another. Sharks are on the prowl and fishermen have to be quick. While spending hours fishing in a boat, the archipelago comes alive and the waters of the archipelago are home to numerous sea turtles. Whales visit the calm waters during their migrations and dolphins patrol the channels and narrow waterways between the islands. It is not uncommon to see curious olive-coloured sea snakes approach boats.

The natural beauty and diversity of the Pilbara continues beyond the coast, but it is here, where the Pilbara reaches the Indian Ocean, that the resources boom is casting a large dark shadow over this exciting and hugely diverse region and the high price we pay for prosperity becomes visible.