Big Trip 2024 - Day 15 (Whyalla)

Whyalla is not a tourist town.

It's a working town, built on the back of iron ore mining and steel manufacturing.

Steelworks.

 Whyalla is not a small town. I had mistakenly thought it was the smaller brother of Port Augusta. Turns out that Whyalla is the fourth largest city in South Australia with just under 21,800 living here. Port Augusta has only about 13,000.

Whyalla was originally known as Hummock Hill in around 1901. In the early years it was essentially a BHP service centre until in 1920 it officially became a town.

Whyalla is a sprawling town, it has 6 football teams and its own league. Driving around the town it feels as though it was designed with a much bigger population in mind. According to online sources, it did reach a peak of 38,000 in 1976 before slowly declining over the years. At one stage in the 1960's planning was undertaken for a possible population  of 100,000.

Shipbuilding was a very important industry in the town up until 1978 when they were closed down. The shipyards built 64 ships in total. including in 1941 when four patrol boats were built there for the war effort. The HMAS Whyalla was one of them, Now decommissioned, this boat can still be seen near the town's Information Centre.

As a tourist, there seemed to be two main areas to visit. The Whyalla Jetty, and The Hummock Hill Lookout.

Here is the view from Hummock Hill of the Jetty.

And here is the view of Hummock Hill from the Jetty.

Hummock Hill is on the left.

Queen Elizabeth II visited Whyalla back in1986 (12th March) and actually went to the Hummock Hill lookout. A plaque was unveiled to commemorate this momentous day.

After spending some time admiring the views from both places I explored the town further.

Walking around the centre of town I couldn't help but notice a dozen or so posters around the that had been put up on the walls in a couple of the alleys, I took photos of a few of them.

Breathe Out

Notice the Sweet Scent of the Flowers

Notice the birds in the trees and on the buildings. How Many? What Types? LISTEN.

Be Still. Be Present. Breathe In.

Anyone that practices mindfulness may recognise some of this.

Even though Whyalla isn't, strictly speaking, a tourist town there are three caravan parks (though none of them are overflowing with visitors at the moment). And whilst there are some nice beaches here, the blowy weather experienced yesterday and today restricted enjoyment of that somewhat.

I'm glad I visited Whyalla. I knew nothing about it before this trip and now I know something about it.

On the road tomorrow and heading further inland into New South Wales.

PIE REVIEW

I tried my hardest. I really did. The two two bakeries that I could find were both closed. After I had lunch at the Eyre Hotel I accidentally found a third one - a Villis pie shop. Too late though, as I was too full to even think about eating a pie.

Better luck tomorrow.

Podcast of the day: The Cine-Files - Guardians of the Galaxy Part 1

- two Americans who, when not using the podcast as a means of dealing with their own psycological issues, provide some pretty good insight on how popular movies are made. 2 and half hours to only dissect the first half of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Total km travelled: 3,851