Whyalla was founded as "Hummocks Hill", and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fourth most populous city in the Australian state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

after

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

Mount Gambier Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with an estimated urban population of 33,233 . The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about south-east of the capital Ad ...

and

Gawler Gawler is the oldest country town on the Australian mainland in the state of South Australia. It was named after the second Governor (British Vice-Regal representative) of the colony of South Australia, George Gawler. It is about north of the ...

and along with

Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South ...

and

Port Augusta Port Augusta is a small city in South Australia. Formerly a port, seaport, it is now a road traffic and Junction (rail), railway junction city mainly located on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf immediately south of the gulf's head and about ...

is one of the three towns to make up the Iron Triangle. As of June 2018, Whyalla had an urban population of 21,742, Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. having declined at an average annual rate of -0.75% year-over-year over the preceding five years. It is a

seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

located on the east coast of the

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named aft ...

and is known as the "Steel City" due to its integrated steelworks and shipbuilding heritage. The port of Whyalla has been exporting iron ore since 1903.

Description

The city consists of an urban area bounded to the north by the railway to the mining town of

Iron Knob Iron Knob is a town in the Australian state of South Australia on the Eyre Peninsula immediately south of the Eyre Highway. At the 2006 census, Iron Knob and the surrounding area had a population of 199. The town obtained its name from its prox ...

, to the east by

Spencer Gulf The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost and larger of two large inlets (the other being Gulf St Vincent) on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. It spans from the Cape Catastrophe and ...

, and to the south by the

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...

. The urban area consists of the following suburbs laid from east to west extending from a natural hill known as Hummock Hill: Whyalla,

Whyalla Playford Whyalla Playford is a suburb of Whyalla in South Australia. It is bounded on the east and south by the Lincoln Highway and on the north by the BHP Whyalla Tramway The BHP Whyalla Tramway is a gauge heavy-haul railway on the Eyre Peninsula ...

Whyalla Norrie Whyalla Norrie is a suburb of Whyalla on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia. It was gazetted as a distinct suburb in 1967, and had its boundaries altered in 1975 and 2000. It is bounded by Iron Knob Road, Norrie Avenue, Broadbent Terrace and ...

Whyalla Stuart Whyalla Stuart is a suburb of the city of Whyalla in South Australia. It was gazetted in 1967 with the boundaries adjusted in 1977 and 2000. It is bounded on the south side by the Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transconti ...

, and

Whyalla Jenkins Whyalla Jenkins is a suburb of the city of Whyalla in South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land ...

. A port facility, a rail yard serving the railway line to Iron Knob, and an

industrial complex The industrial complex is a socioeconomic concept wherein businesses become entwined in social or political systems or institutions, creating or bolstering a profit economy from these systems. Such a complex is said to pursue its own financial ...

are located to the immediate north of Hummock Hill.

Whyalla Barson Whyalla Barson is a suburb in South Australia located on the northern side of the city of Whyalla in the north east corner of Eyre Peninsula. It is named after Thomas Leonard Barson, superintendent of BHP in Whyalla from 1933 to 1938. The suburb ...

and the

Whyalla Conservation Park Whyalla Conservation Park (formerly Whyalla National Park) is a protected area located in the Australian state of South Australia about north of the centre of city of Whyalla immediately adjoining the Lincoln Highway. The conservation park wa ...

are located about north of the city. It is an iron-rich exporting town that supplies China.

Nomenclature

The origin of the name Whyalla is disputed. In 1916 it was referred to as the "native" name, having been ascribed during a survey conducted a few years beforehand. During the 1940s,

Norman Tindale Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. Life Tindale was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1900. His family moved to Tokyo and lived ther ...

, the ethnologist at the

South Australian Museum The South Australian Museum is a natural history museum and research institution in Adelaide, South Australia, founded in 1856 and owned by the Government of South Australia. It occupies a complex of buildings on North Terrace in the cultu ...

believed that the name could have been derived from aboriginal words "Wajala", meaning "west" in a language common to

, or "Waiala", meaning "I don't know" in a language more common to

. In 1945,

BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

advised that the name had been taken from nearby Mount Whyalla, which lies northwest of Whyalla, roughly midway between the town and Iron Knob. Other meanings ascribed to the word Whyalla include "dingo", "by the water", and "a place of water". Another hypothesis is that the name was brought by European settlers and was derived from a place called Whyalla in

Durham, England Durham ( , locally ), is a cathedral city and civil parish on the River Wear, County Durham, England. It is an administrative centre of the County Durham District, which is a successor to the historic County Palatine of Durham (which is dif ...

History

Whyalla is part of the

Barngarla The Barngarla, formerly known as Parnkalla and also known as Pangkala, are an Aboriginal people of the Port Lincoln, Whyalla and Port Augusta areas. The Barngarla are the traditional owners of much of Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Languag ...

Aboriginal country. A mariner named William Morgan Burgoyne purportedly recommended the site for the establishment of a port on False Bay to Harry Morgan of

. Burgoyne had spent several weeks there on a trip out from Port Augusta hunting kangaroo with his brother and another man called Alf Rowarth. At that time there was no settlement between Middleback Station and the Point Lowly lighthouse, and kangaroos were plentiful there. Burgoyne recalled that the tug ''Florrie'' ferried a crew there a week later and pegged out the settlement first known as Hummocky. It was officially founded as Hummock's Hill in 1901 by the

BHP Whyalla Tramway The BHP Whyalla Tramway is a gauge heavy-haul railway on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. It runs from haematite mines at Iron Monarch, Iron Baron and Iron Duke in the Middleback Range, about west of Whyalla, to company steelworks a ...

, which transported iron ore from

in the

Middleback Range The Middleback Range is a mountain range on the eastern side of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. The Middleback Range has been a source of iron ore for over a century, particularly to feed the Whyalla Steelworks. Mines in the region were first ...

to the sea. Its first shipment was transported across

, where it was used in lead

smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including Silver mining#Ore processing, silver, iron-making, iron, copper extracti ...

s as a

flux Flux describes any effect that appears to pass or travel (whether it actually moves or not) through a surface or substance. Flux is a concept in applied mathematics and vector calculus which has many applications to physics. For transport ph ...

. A jetty was built to transfer the ore and the first shipment was sent in 1903. The early settlement consisted of small cottages and tents clustered around the base of the hill. The post office opened in 1901 as Hummock's Hill. In 1905 the town's first school opened. It was originally called Hummock Hill School but was subsequently renamed to Whyalla Primary School and Whyalla Higher Primary School. The school's current name is Whyalla Town Primary School. The arid environment and lack of natural fresh water resources made it necessary to import water in barges from Port Pirie. The Post Office was renamed Whyalla on 1 November 1919, and on 16 April 1920 the town was officially proclaimed with its new name. The ore conveyor on the jetty was improved, and the shipping of ore to the newly built

Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle ( ; Awabakal: ) is a metropolitan area and the second most populated city in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas, and is the hub of the Greater Newcastle area, w ...

, steelworks commenced. The town grew slowly prior to the development of steelmaking and shipbuilding facilities in the late 1930s. The ''BHP Indenture Act'' was proclaimed in 1937 and provided the impetus for the construction of a

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

and harbour. In 1939 the blast furnace and harbour began to be constructed and a commitment for a water supply pipeline from the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest r ...

was made. A

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

was built to provide ships for the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The population began to rise rapidly and many new facilities, including a hospital and abattoirs, were built. In 1941 the first ship from the new shipyard, , was launched and the blast furnace became operational. By 1943 the population was more than 5,000. On 31 March 1943, the Morgan - Whyalla pipeline became operational. In 1945 the city came under combined company and public administration and the shipyard began producing commercial ships. In 1948,

displaced person Forced displacement (also forced migration) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of persecution, conflict, g ...

s began arriving from Europe increasing the cultural diversity of Whyalla. In 1958 BHP decided to build an integrated steelworks at Whyalla and it was completed in 1965. In the following year, salt harvesting began and coke ovens were built. The population grew extremely rapidly, and the

South Australian Housing Trust The South Australian Housing Trust (SAHT) is an independent statutory authority originally established by the Government of South Australia responsible for providing low-cost rental housing to working people and their families, as a means of s ...

was building 500 houses each year to cope with the demand. Plans for a city of 100,000 were produced by the Department of Lands. A second water supply pipeline from Morgan was built to cope with the demand. In 1970 the city adopted full local government status. Fierce competition from Japanese ship builders resulted in the closing of the shipyards in 1978, which were at the time the largest in Australia. From a peak population of 38,130 in 1976, the population dropped rapidly. A decline in the BHP iron and steel industry since 1981 also impacted employment. The BHP long products division was

divested In finance and economics, divestment or divestiture is the reduction of some kind of asset for financial, ethical, or political objectives or sale of an existing business by a firm. A divestment is the opposite of an investment. Divestiture is a ...

in 2000 to form OneSteel, which is the sole producer of rail and steel sleepers in Australia. On 2 July 2012, OneSteel changed its name to

Arrium Arrium was an Australian mining and materials company, employing nearly 10,000 workers, that went into voluntary administration in 2016 with debts of more than $2 billion. In 2017 it was acquired by British-owned Liberty House Group. Hist ...

. From 2004 onward, northern South Australia enjoyed a mineral exploration boom, and Whyalla found itself well placed to benefit from new ventures, being situated on the edge of the

Gawler Craton The Gawler Craton covers approximately 440,000 square kilometres of central South Australia. Its Precambrian crystalline basement crustal block was cratonised ca. 1550–1450 Ma. Prior to 1550 Ma the craton comprised a number of active Proter ...

. The city experienced an economic upturn with the population slowly increasing and the unemployment rate falling to a more typical level.

Heritage listings

Whyalla has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: * Broadbent Terrace:

Whyalla High School Whyalla High School was a high school located in the city of Whyalla in the Australian state of South Australia catering for school years 8–10. It was the first high school built in Whyalla. It was built by BHP in 1943, as a Technical school f ...

* 13 Forsyth Street: Hotel Bay View, Whyalla * 5 Forsyth Street: Spencer Hotel, Whyalla * Gay Street: World War Two Gun Emplacements, Hummock Hill * 3 Whitehead Street:

Whyalla Court House Whyalla was founded as "Hummocks Hill", and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fourth most populous city in the Australian state of South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier and Gawler and along with Port Pirie and Port Augusta ...

Port

Since its beginnings as Hummock Hill, the town has served as a port for the shipment of iron ore from deposits along the Middleback Range. The port's first conveyor-belt loading system was installed in 1915 and was capable of loading 1,000 tonnes of ore per hour. In 1943, it took 5½-to-6 hours to load a single 5,000-ton freighter. In 2007, new

transshipment Transshipment, trans-shipment or transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to another destination. One possible reason for transshipment is to change the means of transport during the journey (e.g. ...

handling processes were implemented, which allowed

(formerly Onesteel) to load iron ore onto larger

capesize Capesize ships are the largest dry cargo ships with ball mark dimension: about 170,000 DWT (deadweight tonnage) capacity, 290 m long, 45 m beam (wide), 18m draught (under water depth). They are too large to transit the Suez Canal ( Suezmax limi ...

bulk carrier vessels in deeper water. The transshipment process involves filling barges with ore that is then transferred into the receiving vessels at one of three transshipment anchorages. In the financial year 2014–15, 12.5 million tonnes of haematite ore was exported from Whyalla using the transshipment process. In October 2015 Arrium loaded its largest capesize cargo via transshipment. The FPMCB Nature was loaded with approximately 205,698 wet metric tonnes (wmt) of iron ore – significantly more than the average load of about 170,000 wmt. The port's inner harbour receives shipments of coal that is used to produce coke for the Whyalla steelworks and exports smaller cargoes of finished steel products.

Geography

Climate

Whyalla experiences a

cold semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

, bordering on a

hot semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

: ''BSk/BSh'', Trewartha: ''BSal''); with hot, dry summers; mild to warm, dry springs and autumns; and mild, relatively dry winters.

Demographics

According to the 2016 census of Population, there were 21,751 people in Whyalla. * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 4.7% of the population. * 73.8% of people were born in Australia. The nextmost common countries of birth were England 7.2%, Scotland 2.4%, Philippines 1.4%, South Africa 0.8% and Germany 0.7%. * 87.0% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Afrikaans 0.7%, Tagalog 0.6%, Greek 0.5%, Italian 0.5% and Filipino 0.5%. * The most common responses for religion were No Religion 38.7%, Catholic 19.5%, Anglican 10.5%. * Of the employed people in Whyalla, 12.4% worked in Iron Smelting and Steel Manufacturing. Other major industries of employment included Iron Ore Mining 7.3%, Hospitals 4.2%, Supermarket and Grocery Stores 3.8% and Primary Education 3.4%. * There were 9,452 people who reported being in the labour force in the week before Census night. Of these 52.5% were employed full-time, 29.5% were employed part-time and 12.5% were unemployed. * The median weekly household income is $989.

Transport

Road

The

passes directly through Whyalla. The city is served by a coach bus service operated by

Stateliner Stateliner is South Australia's largest long-distance coach operator, running services from Adelaide across the state. History In 1966, Alan Crawford established Premier Roadlines. In 1980, Stateliner was purchased, with the business rebranded ...

which operates four services to and from

(via Port Augusta) each week day (less on weekends) and one service each way to

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region, and is located a ...

. There are however occasional exceptions to the week day route due to lack of demand to travel through Whyalla.

Rail

The

was built to

to supply iron ore originally used as flux when smelting copper ore. This ore became the basis of the steelworks. As the Iron Knob deposits were worked out, the railway was diverted to other sources of ore at

Iron Monarch Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in fr ...

, Iron Prince, Iron Duke and Iron Baron. To enable interchange between the BHP's other steelworks in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

and

Port Kembla A port is a maritime law, maritime facility comprising one or more Wharf, wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge Affreightment, cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can a ...

of specialised rollingstock, the railway system within the Whyalla steelworks was converted to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

in the 1960s. Although the steelworks produced railway rail, for several decades there was no railway connection to the mainland system. Finally in 1972, the

Whyalla line to

was completed and

Whyalla railway station Whyalla railway station was the terminus station of the Whyalla line serving the South Australian city of Whyalla. History Whyalla station was opened on 6 October 1972 by Prime Minister William McMahon at the same time as the Whyalla line. S ...

opened. The station was served daily from

until 1975, then again from 1986 to 1990 by the ''

Iron Triangle Limited The Iron Triangle Limited was a passenger train operated by Australian National between Adelaide, Port Pirie, Port Augusta, and Whyalla.Coober Pedy Coober Pedy () is a town in northern South Australia, north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. Coober Pedy is ...

, 600 km away. To meet this increased demand, a

balloon loop A balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop ( North American Terminology) allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains. Bal ...

was installed in 2012 at the port for both gauges.

Air

Whyalla Airport is southwest of the city. It is served by

Rex Airlines Regional Express Pty. Ltd., trading as Rex Airlines (and as Regional Express Airlines on regional routes), is an Australian airline based in Mascot, New South Wales. It operates scheduled regional and domestic services. It is Australia's large ...

flying into Whyalla from

a number of times a day, and

QantasLink QantasLink is a regional brand of Australian airline Qantas and is an affiliate member of the Oneworld airline alliance. It is a major competitor to Regional Express Airlines and Virgin Australia Regional Airlines. As of September 2010 Qantas ...

which operates twice daily services from Adelaide.

Sea

There is a small boat marina (populated by a number of dolphins), a sailing club, and a boat ramp on the coastline below Hummock Hill, where there is a fish-cleaning station situated nearby. Iron ore is exported through an off-shore facility.

Media

Whyalla is served by several radio and TV stations. Radio stations include 5YYY FM (Local community station), Magic FM (Commercial station based in Port Augusta), and 5AU/5CS (Commercial station based in Port Pirie). The local TV station is

Southern Cross Seven Seven Regional is an Australian television network owned by Southern Cross Austereo that is available in Tasmania, Darwin, Spencer Gulf, Broken Hill and Remote Australia (Eastern and Central). The network is the primary affiliate of the Seven ...

. The local newspaper, ''The'' ''Whyalla News'''','' was first published on 5 April 1940, and is currently owned by

Australian Community Media Australian Community Media (ACM) is a media company in Australia responsible for over 160 regional publications. Its mastheads include the ''Canberra Times'', ''Newcastle Herald'', '' The Examiner'', '' The Border Mail'', '' The Courier'' and ...

. Historically, another short-lived monthly newspaper called the ''Whyalla Times'' (January - October 1960) was also printed for the town by E.J. McAllister and Co., from its premises in Blythe Street, Adelaide. Another publication called ''Scope'' (May 1973–November 1982) was also printed in the town. According to the

State Library A national library is established by the government of a nation to serve as the pre-eminent repository of information for that country. Unlike public libraries, they rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuab ...

, ''"Scope was a monthly regional magazine in newspaper format published by the Willson family of the Whyalla News. It was issued as an insert to six local newspapers: the Recorder (Port Pirie), Transcontinental (Port Augusta), Eyre Peninsula Tribune (Cleve), Port Lincoln Times, West Coast Sentinel (Streaky Bay) and Northern Argus (Clare)."''

Tourism

The industrial and cultural history of Whyalla is accessible to tourists via several museums and public tours. Visitors can view the ex- HMAS ''Whyalla'' from the Lincoln Highway and take a guided tour of it via the Whyalla Maritime Museum. The ship is a retired World War II-era corvette and was the first ship built in the city of Whyalla during the war. It was relocated to the highway in 1987. The Whyalla Maritime Museum features various displays commemorating the town's ship building and mining history, including miniature replicas of various ships and a model railway diorama. Further displays introduce visitors to the region's natural and indigenous cultural histories. Tours of the

Whyalla Steelworks The Whyalla Steelworks is a fully integrated steelworks and the only manufacturer of rail in Australia. Iron ore is mined in the Middleback Range to feed the steelworks, resulting in the distribution of finished steel products of over 90 different ...

allow visitors to view the production of long products at the working plant. Tours departing from the Whyalla Visitors Centre. The town's development and social history is presented at the volunteer-run Mount Laura Homestead National Trust Museum, which is located near the Westlands shopping centre. One of the main tourist attractions of Whyalla is the world-renowned beach, and the many attractions based around it. Especially the shops and pop-ups in the car park.

Ecotourism

In the late 1990s the annual migration of the Australian giant cuttlefish ''Sepia apama'' to shallow, inshore rocky reef areas in

north of Whyalla became recognized by divers and marine scientists. Divers and snorkellers can see the aggregation of animals from May through August each year, in water one to six metres deep. The most popular places to view the aggregation are Black Point, Stony Point and

Point Lowly Point Lowly is the tip of a small peninsula north north-east of Whyalla in the Upper Spencer Gulf region of South Australia. The wider peninsula is shared by a combination of defence, industrial, residential, recreational and tourism interests ...

. Car parking and boardwalks or stairs to the waters edge are present at each location, making access easy. Dolphins frequent the Whyalla marina, but concerns have been raised that their confidence around humans may increase their vulnerability. The

provides an example of the natural semi-arid environment accessible via walking trails. A gentle climb to the top of Wild Dog Hill provides a view of the surrounding landscape and information on native vegetation via a series of interpretive signs.

Fishing

Boat launching facilities exist at Whyalla and Point Lowly North marinas. The Whyalla Marina also has a jetty which is illuminated at night for the convenience of fishers. Whyalla was home to an annual Snapper Fishing Competition. The largest of its kind and renowned for attracting tourists and fisherman from all over Australia, if not the world. However, due to major over fishing, a blanket ban was put in place to protect the species, and is presently still in effect. Subsequently, the annual fishing competition was closed.

Politics

State and federal

Whyalla is part of the state

electoral district of Giles Giles is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. Named after explorer Ernest Giles, it is the largest electorate in the state by area, covering of South Australian outback. Its main population centre is th ...

, which is presently held by

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

MP Eddie Hughes. Giles was previously held by Labor MP Lyn Breuer from 1997 until her retirement in 2014. In federal politics, the city is part of the division of Grey, and has been represented by

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

Rowan Ramsey Rowan Eric Ramsey (born 4 August 1956) is the Liberal Party of Australia member for the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives seat of Division of Grey, Grey since the 2007 Australian federal election, 2007 election, succ ...

since 2007. Grey is held with a margin of 8.86% and is considered safe-liberal. The results shown are from the largest polling station in Whyalla Norrie – which is located at Nicolson Avenue Primary School.

Local

Whyalla is in the

City of Whyalla The City of Whyalla (formally The Corporation of the City of Whyalla) is a local government area in South Australia, located at the north-east corner of the Eyre Peninsula. It was established in 1970, replacing the town commission, which had been ...

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

(along with some of the sparsely inhabited areas around it).

Education

Primary schools

Primary schools in Whyalla include Whyalla Town Primary School, Fisk Street Primary School, Long Street Primary School, Hincks Avenue Primary School, Memorial Oval Primary School, Whyalla Stuart Campus, Nicolson Avenue Primary School, Sunrise Christian School, St Teresa's and Our Lady Help of Christians (both Samaritan College).

Secondary schools

Secondary Education is provided by

, Stuart High School, Samaritan College,

Edward John Eyre High School Edward John Eyre High School is located in Whyalla Norrie, South Australia. It opened in 1968 as Eyre Technical High School. Built during the boom period, student enrolment reached around 1,500 in the 1970s. Today, Edward John Eyre High School, ...

and Saint John's College, Whyalla. Saint John's College is one of the three schools that make up Samaritan College. On 1 November 2017 a new high school was announced by Department for Education & Child Development for Whyalla which will combine

Edward John Eyre Edward John Eyre (5 August 181530 November 1901) was an English land explorer of the Australian continent, colonial administrator, and Governor of Jamaica. Early life Eyre was born in Whipsnade, Bedfordshire, shortly before his family moved to ...

, Stuart High and Whyalla High Schools into a new purpose built facility located between the

University of South Australia The University of South Australia (UniSA) is a public research university in the Australian state of South Australia. It is a founding member of the Australian Technology Network of universities, and is the largest university in South Australi ...

and

TAFE SA TAFE South Australia (TAFE SA) provides vocational education and training in South Australia. The acronym TAFE stands for Technical and Further Education and is used and recognised nationally throughout Australia. TAFE SA is a Registered trai ...

campuses.

Tertiary education

Tertiary education is provided by the Spencer Institute of

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...

, and the Whyalla Campus of the

. UniSA Whyalla's academic programs include business, social work, nursing and research opportunities in rural health and community development.

Arts

The D'Faces of Youth Arts community youth arts organisation has run workshops and activities for young people aged 7 to 27 in theatre, dance, visual arts and music since 1994. The Whyalla Recording Scholarship is awarded annually for Whyalla residents aged from 12 to 21. The Inaugural (2017) Winner was seventeen year old Breeze Millard from Whyalla. The Second (2018) Whyalla Recording Scholarship was launched on 23 April 2018 with 2 Winners (17 year old Liberty Tuohy from Port Neill and 19 year old Shakira Fauser from Whyalla) and 1 Runner-Up (15 year old Jaylee Daniels from Whyalla) being announced on 17 September 2018. On 24 February 2019 Jaylee Daniels' Debut Single "Papa's Song" reached Number 7, and Shakira Lea's "I Miss You" Number 18 on the iTunes Australia Country Chart In 2021 both Jaylee (with "Tonight") and Shakira (with "Drowning") released their second Singles. On 21 February 2021 Jaylee Daniels' "Tonight" reached Number 3 on the iTunes Australia Singer Songwriter Chart.

Sport

The

Whyalla Football League The Whyalla Football League Inc. is an Australian rules football competition based in the town of Whyalla on the east coast of the Eyre Peninsula region of South Australia. It is an affiliated member of the South Australian National Football Leag ...

is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

competition supporting half-a-dozen clubs. In 1998, Bennett Oval hosted a

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

match between the

Adelaide Rams The Adelaide Rams were an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The team was formed in 1995 for the planned rebel Super League competition. The Rams lasted two seasons, the first in the Super Le ...

and

Illawarra Steelers The Illawarra Steelers are an Australian rugby league football club based in the city of Wollongong, New South Wales. The club competed in Australia's top-level rugby league competition from 1982 until 1998. On the 13th of December 1980, the ...

. The Steelers won 39–4.

Sister cities

Whyalla's sister city is

Texas City Texas City is a city in Galveston County, Texas, Galveston County in the U.S. state of Texas. Located on the southwest shoreline of Galveston Bay, Texas City is a busy deepwater port on Texas's Gulf Coast, as well as a petroleum-refining and pe ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. It was proclaimed in 1984, during the sesquicentennials of both Texas and South Australia. Ties with a former sister city,

Ezhou Ezhou () is a prefecture-level city in eastern Hubei Province, China. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 1,079,353, of which 695,697 lived in the core Echeng District. The Ezhou - Huanggang built-up (''or metro'') area was home ...

in China, were cut in the 1990s. In 1997, both cities signed an agreement reestablishing their sister city relationship.

Notable people from Whyalla

Leigh Hoffman Leigh Hoffman (born 11 June 2000) is an Australian track cyclist. Early life Hoffman was brought up in Whyalla in South Australia but moved as teenager to Adelaide to be nearer his training base at the SA Sports Institute, enrolling at the Im ...

- cyclist * Ben Pengelley - cricketer * Robert Bajic – soccer player * Lachlan Barr - soccer player with Bradford City A.F.C. *

Edwina Bartholomew Edwina Louise Christie Bartholomew (born 5 July 1983) is an Australian journalist and television presenter. Bartholomew is currently news presenter on the Seven Network's breakfast television program ''Sunrise''. She has previously been a co-ho ...

– journalist and television presenter * Max Brown – politician *

Brett Burton Brett Burton (born 4 May 1978) is a retired Australian rules footballer who played in the Australian Football League. He was picked up at Pick 16 in the 1998 AFL Draft by the Adelaide Football Club. He is noted for his spectacular high m ...

– former AFL player with the

Adelaide Crows The Adelaide Crows (officially the Adelaide Football Club) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1990. The Crows has fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) sinc ...

* Alan Didak - AFL player with the

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The club w ...

* Karyne Di Marco – hammer thrower *

Alistair Edwards Alistair Martin Edwards (born 21 June 1968) is a former soccer player and coach. A prominent forward, he made a name for himself with National Soccer League clubs Sydney Olympic and Perth Glory. He was also a favourite with Malaysian League tea ...

– Australian soccer player * Connie Frazer – poet, feminist, and writer * Sophie Gonzales - author and psychologist * Gary Gray –

Special Minister of State The Special Minister of State (SMOS) in the Government of Australia is a position currently held by Don Farrell since 1 June 2022, following the Australian federal election in 2022. The minister is responsible for various parliamentary, electo ...

in the Gillard government * Levi Greenwood – AFL player with the Collingwood Football Club * Alison Hams – musician and recording artist; 2015 Whyalla Australia Day Citizen Of The Year. * Graeme Jose – Australian Olympic cyclist *

Rex Patrick Rex Lyall Patrick (born 8 May 1967) is an Australian politician who served as a Senator for South Australia from November 2017 until June 2022. He was appointed to the Senate to fill a casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Nick Xenophon. ...

– South Australian senator *

Ian Rawlings Ian Rawlings (born 9 March 1959) is an Australian actor. He is best known for his long-running roles in soap operas '' Sons and Daughters'' and ''Neighbours''. He also appeared in the short-lived serial ''The Power, the Passion''. Career ''Sons ...

– television actor *

Barrie Robran Barrie Charles Robran MBE (born 25 September 1947 in Whyalla, South Australia) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) from 1967 to 1980. He won South Australian footbal ...

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

player with

North Adelaide Football Club North Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed The Roosters, is an Australian rules football club affiliated with the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and SANFL Women's League (SANFLW). The club plays its home games at Prospect Oval, ...

Vern Schuppan Vernon John Schuppan (born 19 March 1943) is a retired Australian motor racing driver. Schuppan drove in various categories, participating in Formula One, the Indianapolis 500 and most successfully in sports car racing. Although he consider ...

– former

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

driver *

Robert Shirley Sir Robert Shirley (or Sherley; c. 1581 – 13 July 1628) was an English traveller and adventurer, younger brother of Sir Anthony Shirley and Sir Thomas Shirley. He is notable for his help modernising and improving the Persian Safavid army ...

– AFL player with the

Peter Stanley Peter Alan Stanley (born 28 October 1956) is an Australian historian and research professor at the University of New South Wales in the Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society. He was Head of the Centre for Historical Res ...

– historian *

Carl Veart Thomas Carl Veart (born 21 May 1970 in Whyalla, South Australia, Australia) is an Australian former footballer who is the head coach for Adelaide United. Club career He previously played in England for Sheffield United, Crystal Palace and Mill ...

– international soccer player who played 18 games for the

Socceroos The Australia men's national soccer team represents Australia in international men's soccer. Officially nicknamed the Socceroos, the team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is affiliated with ...

Darryl Wakelin Darryl Wakelin (born 11 August 1974) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for St Kilda and Port Adelaide in the Australian Football League as a defender. AFL career Adelaide Wakelin was selected by Adelaide with the 11th pic ...

– AFL footballer *

Shane Wakelin Shane Wakelin (born 12 August 1974) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early life Wakelin was born in Wh ...

– AFL footballer *

Isaac Weetra Isaac Weetra (born 27 February 1989) is a semi-professional Australian rules footballer. He is notable for his brief Australian Football League (AFL) stint, playing with the Melbourne Demons. Early life In 2006 he represented Australia's in ...

– AFL player with the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

* Sean Williams – science fiction author * Douglas Wood - engineer and Iraq war hostage * Bianca Woolford - para-cyclist * Stephen Yarwood – Lord Mayor of the City of Adelaide 2009–2014

Gallery

File:Whyalla Jetty.jpg , Whyalla Jetty File:Whyalla Foreshore.jpg , Whyalla foreshore File:Whyalla Institute building, 2017 (01).jpg , Whyalla Institute facade File:Whyalla-ore-handling.JPG , Ore handling at the port File:Whyalla-port.JPG , Port facility File:QF 3.7 inch AA gun Whyalla 2007.JPG , QF 3.7-inch AA gun from

at Hummock Hill File:Whyalla-coast.JPG , View of the coast from Hummock Hill

References

External links

Whyalla City Council's tourist information siteWhyalla's Weather for the last 72 hours
{{Authority control Cities in South Australia Coastal cities in Australia Eyre Peninsula Populated places established in 1920 Port cities in South Australia Ports and harbours of South Australia Spencer Gulf Underwater diving sites in Australia