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We present an overview of a new geotourism guidebook on the geology and landforms of the east Pilbara region, Western Australia, a region renowned for its wide-open spaces, turquoise coasts, hottest town, long trains, big ships, and spinifex grass - lots of spinifex. These are the features that most visitors to the region see. But the east Pilbara is much more and has one other feature that makes it unique within Australia and - except for a part of southern Africa - anywhere else in the world. It is a feature that is difficult to see without guidance and that very few people would ever recognize: the east Pilbara is a window into deep time. This special place offers a glimpse of what the world was like 3.5 billion (3 500 000 000) years ago, or three-quarters of the way back in time to the formation of the planet, long before European settlement, before its Aboriginal inhabitants arrived, before marsupial megafauna and dinosaurs, before fish climbed out of the sea, even before multicellular life.
This guidebook will help interested travellers to open that window, help them to see, appreciate, and understand the secrets that are locked in the hills and flat expanses of this region and will give them a sense of the processes and vast timescales involved in the formation of the planet we live on, how life evolved on our planet, and the landscapes we see around us today.
The guidebook includes introductory chapters on Deep time and the early Earth, Geology for beginners, Geological history of the east Pilbara region, and Recent history of the east Pilbara region, covering the major events of Aboriginal and European settlement. This is followed by descriptions of geological and landform stops along five designated routes in this remote, semi-desert area of the world. Stops include localities that demonstrate the bedrock geology (including an array of 3.5-3.0 billion year old igneous and sedimentary rocks), regolith and glacial deposits, an impact breccia horizon, recent landforms, and a walking trail to some of Earth's oldest fossil stromatolites.
The intent of the guidebook is to promote education of people in geosciences, to develop a sense of wonder about our planet, and to promote local tourism through sustainable utilization of its natural geoheritage resource.
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