Dampier, town and port, state of Western Australia, Australia. Dampier is a modern industrial town lying on the Indian Ocean. It is situated in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia and has been incorporated with the adjacent town of Karratha, founded in the 1960s. Karratha is the focus of most new development, Dampier having been declared unsuitable for continued expansion. Dampier exports iron ore from the Hamersley Range and processed iron from its port facilities. The town is a short distance from the North West Coastal Highway, and is linked to the mining towns of the Hamersley Range by rail. There is some tourism, centred around the Coral Coast and Dampier Archipelago. More significant is the nearby North West Shelf natural gas project that extracts natural gas from an offshore platform to be piped to Perth or liquefied and exported to Japan and elsewhere. Dampier is named after William Dampier who explored the area in 1699. Population (1991) 1,810.Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
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