1. Dingo Dreaming
“A journey through country, memory and ancient stories.”
Written in a hotel room on George Street, Sydney, just before recording the first CD, Nor West Friends, at Fox Studios. The song was inspired by a proposed film near Roebourne, mapping the Dreamtime journey of two old Aboriginal women wandering through the Western Desert.
2. Nor West Friends
“Friendships forged in red dust and hard work.”
A tribute to the hard-working Nor Westers who travel from all corners of the globe to build mining, oil and gas developments. Friendships are forged deep in the red dust over six exhausting workdays, followed by a well-earned Saturday afternoon with friends.
3. Dancing in the Eye
“When the storm falls silent, the Pilbara starts to dance.”
This track captures the awe of a Pilbara cyclone: the brutal wind, the eerie calm when the eye of the storm sits overhead, and the local custom of stepping outside to dance before the wind returns from the opposite direction.
4. Karijini
“A day in Karijini, from spinifex plains to hidden waterholes.”
A musical picture of a beautiful day in Karijini National Park. From dawn to dusk, the song moves through grassy plains, rugged spinifex hills, deep pools and a late-night sighting of endangered Western Pebble Mice flowing across a track like water.
5. We Won't Forget Wittenoom
“A town may close, but its stories should never disappear.”
A solemn tribute to the ambitious young men who left Perth in the 1960s to earn a living mining blue asbestos. Unaware of the lethal dust covering them each day, many paid the ultimate price. The township may now be closed, but the song keeps their story alive.
6. People Like You and Me
“For the everyday workers behind the big resource story.”
While global financial markets watch the multi-billion dollar resource companies operating out of Dampier, this track turns its attention to the human beings behind the work. It honours the everyday people working in the searing heat to export iron ore, gas and salt.
7. Timeless Land
“Standing among mesas, you feel the age of the earth.”
A reflection on some of the oldest rock formations in the world. Over billions of years, wind and rain carved the flat-topped hills into mesas rising above the spinifex plains. Walking among them gives a powerful sense of standing inside a timeless land.
8. Fly In Fly Out
“A song for the families shaped by fly-in-fly-out life.”
A story of the social change that grew from the 1980s as resource companies moved heavily towards fly-in-fly-out workforces. The song captures the pressure placed on remote workers and families back home, told through a young father travelling to site for the first time.
9. Kanaji Binbaku
“Lightning, dry creek beds and rain racing across the Pilbara.”
Meaning “lightning flashing across grey clouds” in the local Aboriginal tongue, this song describes heavy rain clouds passing the dry coastal plains before breaking inland over the hills, sending water racing through empty creek beds towards the sea.
10. Pilbara Moon
“The moon rises, and the Pilbara calls people back again.”
A memory familiar to anyone who has seen a huge full moon rising over the rugged ranges. Early construction workers laying outback railways spoke of its pull, and this track tells the story of people continually drawn back to the Pilbara projects.