Located approximately a two and a half hour drive south west of Karratha, Pannawonica is a mining town owned by the Robe River Mining Company.
It is a 'closed town', however Robe River operates a free tour of Mesa J mine on request with 24 hours notice. Call (08) 9184 1142 for bookings. Other town festivities are the Gala Weekend in July with a ball and community fete, plus a rodeo every August.
Pannawonica was built in 1970 by Cleveland-Cliffs Robe River Iron (predecessor of the present Robe River Iron Associates) and was gazetted as a townsite in 1972.
The township's name was derived from nearby Pannawonica Hill, named by a surveyor in 1885 after the corresponding Aboriginal placename which is said to mean 'the hill that came from the sea'.
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