It is October. Thunder clouds run rampant across a parched red landscape. The smell of rain is in the air. Corellas, screeching moments ago, mutter not a sound. The air is still. Brilliant reflections of gnarly giant melaleucas, lit bright by the last rays of the day’s setting sun, stare down the fast-approaching storm.  A landscape, more than 3.5 billion years in the making, and so long starved of rain, will soon be re-borne. The Pilbara truly is Australia’s Ancient Heartbeat.