Dampier, town and port in northwestern Australia, on the Indian Ocean, in the state of Western Australia. Dampier is a modern industrial town that has been incorporated with the neighboring town of Karratha, founded in the 1960s. Dampier exports iron ore from the Hamersley Range and processed iron from its port facilities. Its economy is also supported by a natural gas project that extracts gas from an offshore platform on the North West Shelf. The gas is then piped to Perth or liquefied and sent to Japan and other countries. Rapid industrial growth in the 1960s led to the development of Karratha, and most new development in the area takes place there. Dampier has some tourism, centered around the Coral Coast and Dampier Archipelago. Dampier is a short distance from the North West Coastal Highway, and the town is linked with the mining towns of the Hamersley Range by rail. Dampier is named after William Dampier, an English pirate and explorer who surveyed in the area in 1699. Population (1991) 1,819.
