Good memories; thanks to both of you. Jo and I used to go up to the Darwin for long weekends in the 70's. The Pilbara was an old tramping ground (worked for the Main Roads Dept. from Karratha, which was a cattle station, before the town was built, to the NT border, based in Derby for 4 years and Kununurra for 10 years.)
Many, many nights spent out at the edge of the Great Sandy Desert, where the stars simply try to outshine each other. Using a pair of 7x50 binos while stretched out in the swag was a great way to spend an evening.
I will digress a little....... Five of us were sent to Wallal Downs, half way between Broome and Port Hedland, to survey a new road line (1964). We were camped about 20 miles from Wallal and, one early evening we spotted a cloud of dust being raised out in the desert and heading our way. About an hour after dawn, next morning, two loaded LWB Landrovers came up to the camp. The blokes told us that they were clearing a line from Woomera Rocket Range to make sure there were no Aboriginal people out in the desert, as there was to be a test rocket fired.
Unfortunately, I never found out what transpired.