HMAS Whyalla - Whyalla Visitor Centre and Maritime Museum. Ron visits the West Coast region of South Australia
From Hummock Hill Lookout you get a great view of Whyalla - a city that sprang from the red soil at the top end of Spencer Gulf nearly seventy years ago. In many respects it's a city which just shouldn't be here.
Up until World War Two it was a small port from which iron ore from nearby Iron Knob was shipped to markets around Australia and overseas. But by 1940 life in this sleepy town was about to change.
And to find out how, look no further than HMAS Whyalla - a warship high and dry on the outskirts of town on the Lincoln Highway. It was put here in the late 80s by a group of locals who were determined that all who drive down this part of the peninsula acknowledge a ship and an industry which changed the town forever.
The HMAS Whyalla was the first vessel to come out of the Whyalla Shipyards in 1941. We were at war at the time and Whyalla was seen as a logical place to build corvettes for the war effort given it's safe harbour and it's nearby deposits of iron ore.
Paul Mazourek of the Whyalla Maritime Museum showed us around the ship. "It came under attack by several Japanese aircraft in Papua New Guinea in 1943," said Paul. "They were successful in shooting one down."
Today the HMAS Whyalla is a key part of the city's maritime museum. You can walk through this piece of World War Two history and in the museum itself, are photos of its construction. They're on display in what was the mess and they tell the story of a town that attracted workers from around the world to a sparse and yet starkly beautiful part of Spencer Gulf.
"The harbour had to be dredged so the company had a lot of room to expand," said Paul. "BHP built five very long slipways and so by the end of the 1960s and the early 1970s they were able to build the largest cargo ships ever built in the Southern Hemisphere."
From 1940 to the shipyard's eventual closure in 1978, they built more that sixty vessels here. They are illustrated by a series of models, which include oil tankers, container ships, ferries, barges, warships and even an oilrig.
In it's heyday workers from Glasgow in Scotland and the Newcastle shipyards in England made their way here. Now tankers built in far off places like Korea and China dominate the shoreline and the population of Whyalla has fallen from the heady days of the 60s and 70s when this place was home to about 36 thousand people.
And the reason the town's located exactly where it is at the top of the Gulf is explained --- courtesy of a little train set.
"They picked the closest point between the mountain of iron ore at Iron Knob to the coast and that's where Whyalla was situated."
Despite Whyalla's ups and downs, it remains a close knit community, home to the One Steel Whyalla Steelworks and its Pellet Plant. And in pubs, like the newly renovated New Whyalla Hotel, the locals occasionally drink a toast to those predecessors who carved out a community in the desert.
If you're coming to check out the sights then why not stay at the New Whyalla.... it has a range of newly renovated rooms. To book contact 8645 8955.
And when you come spend plenty of time at the Whyalla Visitor Centre and Maritime Museum. It's located just off the Lincoln Highway - you can't miss it. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au
Whyalla Visitor Centre & Maritime Museum
Lincoln Highway
Port LincolnNew Whyalla Hotel
Gowrie Ave
Whyalla
Bookings 8645 8955Published 23rd July 2006
