Day 121: Port Lincoln to Whyalla

 Another sunny day with gusty northerly winds, too bad we are travelling North.

Our morning tea break was at Cowell, a seaside town from which the Spencer Gulf Ferry operates. For some reason it is currently not in service. It is Saturday morning and the streets are very quiet, so getting parking spot was easy, leaving us a very short walk to the toilets and what appeared to be the only cafe in town that is open.

One of Cowel's tourist attractions is silo art, which is more or less on our way out of town, so we stop to have a look.

It takes another hour or so to reach Whyalla, and the temperature has been steadily rising as we travel North. On arrival, the temperature was in the low 30's C rising to 35 C by mid afternoon.

Despite having a drive through site at the caravan park we unhitched as we still have half a day to fill in, and it will give us a chance to see a small bit of Whyalla.

Whyalla was founded by BHP in 1901, and originally called Hummock's Hill. It changed name to Whyalla in 1920, the aboriginal name meaning "place with deep water"

In 1940 BHP opened new shipyards and the first ship built was an anti submarine and minesweeping vessel, Bathurst Class. The keel was laid on 24 July 1940, it was launched on 12th May 1941 and commissioned 8th January 1942, as HMAS Whyalla.

The HMAS Whyalla is now the key exhibit at the Whyalla maritime museum.

Whyalla became an offical city in 1961 and in 1968 BHP completed a massive new integrated steelworks causing an economic boom in the city. The shipbuilding closed in 1978 after a global slump in the industry.

The steelworks has struggled for the last 30 years and despite several attempts to resurrect it, it is currently closed with poor prospects of long term revival.

Hummock Hill Lookout looks over the steelworks and the beach that was the site of the first European settlement in 1901. During WW11 the hill served as a gun battery and observation post. They are now repurposed as  the lookout points from the hill.

Hummock Hill

One of the 4 gun emplacements still has the gun in place, the other 3 now have the guns removed and a roof and seating instead.

The views are 360 degrees. You can see Iron Knob, where hematite for the steelworks was sourced, across the water some 40 km away.

Iron Knob

The Steelworks

The beach and incredibly shallow water

The city

The marina and jetty which we intend to go to next

There is a well protected harbour with marina, boat ramps and a protected swimming area out near the jetty.

The jetty design is quite unique with a large circular walkway in the middle. It was primarily built for recreation, in particular, fishing.

We drove down to sea level to go for a walk along the jetty and get a closer look at this interesting design.

On the beach side, there are people in the water, way out from the shore and only knee deep in water.

 

A few shots of the jetty show it's unique shape and utility, you could pack a lot of fishermen into this area.

Walking along the jetty there is also a bit of wildlife to see. There were dolphins quite close to the jetty

And this pelican has also staked a claim on one of the light poles.

There is At least one other wildlife feature of Whyalla. During the winter months between May and August tens of thousands of giant Australian cuttlefish amass at Port Lowly. It is the only place in the World where these marine creatures gather in such massive numbers to breed. Unfortunately we are too late to witness this spectacle.

Anyway, our brief visit to Whyalla has been a lot more interesting than we anticipated.

Gourmet dinner tonight in our air conditioned van, Salad Nicoise, made with hot smoked kingfish from the Port Lincoln Smokehouse, delicious !!!