Karratha
©
Karratha

Karratha

Pilbara resource city near Murujuga, where industrial coastlines meet ancient Aboriginal rock art.

Karratha is a resource-industry city on the Pilbara coast of Western Australia, about 1,500 km north of Perth. The town exists to service the natural gas and iron ore operations in the surrounding region — the Burrup Peninsula next door has one of the world's largest LNG processing plants. Despite its industrial character, the Burrup (Murujuga) Peninsula is also one of the world's most significant collections of Aboriginal rock art, with over a million petroglyphs carved over millennia by the Ngarluma and Yaburara people — now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Murujuga rock art is the primary reason most visitors come.

Karratha has good facilities by Pilbara standards, and the coastline and Dampier Archipelago have beaches and fishing that make it worthwhile in winter. The summer heat is extreme. Dampier and Wickham are nearby towns; Point Samson and Cossack, the original colonial port settlement, are worth a half-day excursion.

Guide

Getting There

Karratha Airport (KTA) has multiple daily flights to Perth (around 1 hour 45 minutes), mostly operated by Qantas and Virgin Australia. Given the distances involved — Karratha is about 1,500 kilometres north of Perth — flying is by far the most practical option. Driving from Perth on the North West Coastal Highway takes 15–17 hours and should be broken into at least two stages.

The Greyhound bus service covers the route from Perth but takes 20+ hours and is not a comfortable option for most visitors. A hire car is essential once you arrive — Karratha has no public transport worth speaking of.

Guide

Things to Do

The main reason to visit Karratha is the Murujuga rock art on the Burrup Peninsula — one of the world's largest and most significant concentrations of petroglyphs, much of it still accessible to visitors despite the surrounding industrial development. Beyond the rock art, the Karratha coastline has reasonable beaches and good fishing, and the nearby ghost town of Cossack is one of the best-preserved colonial settlements in the Pilbara.