The rapid development of mining in the Pilbara region of north west Australia has already increased the transport task in the region and is expected to increase it much more. In the past, there has been little land transport to the north west, and the major service has been by sea. In the fluid situation generated by rapid development, it is important to ask how the freight task should be performed in future, whether the shares carried by the various transport modes should be changed and whether there should be radical changes in the whole transport system to the region. These are the questions that this report sets out to answer.