The Red Dog statue celebrates one of the Pilbara's favourite modern legends: the red kelpie/cattle dog said to have roamed mining towns, hitched rides and adopted half the region as his people. The story became a book and film, but in Dampier and Karratha it remains proudly local.
The stop is quick, almost roadside, yet it has more character than many bigger monuments. It gives travellers a human, affectionate entry into the mining towns of the northwest, where distance and companionship are not abstract ideas.