Is it worth doing a Whyalla Steelworks tour in South Australia?

Whyalla really shouldn’t be high on anyone’s list of Australian travel destinations. But if you’re passing through, a Whyalla Steelworks tour at least offers something for visitors who enjoy industrial heritage tourism.

The South Australian town of Whyalla is not, by any stretch of the imagination, one of Australia’s most beautiful destinations. In the north-east of the Eyre Peninsula, this dry, dusty, industrial city is usually well off the tourist map.

It’s above Goyder’s Line, and probably wouldn’t have much of its 21,000 population if it wasn’t for the mining industry. In 1840, explorer John Eyre reported the presence of iron ore in the Middleback Range, 50km away. Attempts to mine it have been going on since the 1890s. And now the Whyalla Steelworks is a huge industrial site making rail for Australia’s railways.

Whyalla Steelworks tour by bus

The Whyalla Steelworks isn’t pretty, but it is surprisingly interesting to visit. In a city not exactly brimming with tourist attractions, the Whyalla Steelworks tours are the best time-killing activity in Whyalla. The bus tours leave from Whyalla Visitor Information Centre on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Bookings are essential and closed footwear is mandatory.

On the way to the steelworks, guides tell the story of Australia’s iron and steel industry. They also demonstrate why Whyalla became such an important site for the industry. Hematite and magnetite iron ore from the Iron Duke mine in the Middleback Ranges is transformed into over 90 grades of steel here.

The steelworks was originally a shipyard, opened in the 1940s. It produced its first steel in 1965, and now processes 1.2 million tonnes of raw steel per year.

How big is the Whyalla Steelworks?

Covering 10 square kilometres, the Whyalla steelworks site is huge. It employs around 1,400 employees, and another 1,300 contractors. The tours of the steelworks site, though, are more interesting when such stats stop and you can just watch the big machinery in action.

Depending on what’s available at the time, the Whyalla Steelworks tours take in the blast furnace, coke ovens and reed beds. It also stops by the steelmaking and casting plant, plus the rolling mills where rail line and steel railway sleeper sections are made.

The 90 metre high blast furnace, and 108 coke ovens are the most awe-inspiring sections. When the bus pulls over at the coke ovens, there’s a good chance of seeing one being ‘pushed through’. Coal is baked in them at 1,100 degrees Celsius for 18 hours. When this is done, it emerges as coke. And, as it is pushed through, the fiery red colour is in equal parts terrifying and mesmerising.

The Whyalla Steelworks tours cost $25 and are best booked by phone. Avoid summer – the Whyalla weather can be unpleasantly hot.

Whyalla Steelworks tour: Why stay in Whyalla?

They are absolutely not worth going out of your way for, however. Whyalla is 386km from South Australian capital Adelaide, and the drive takes just over four hours without breaks.

It is, however, a potentially useful journey breaker on the epic road trip from Adelaide to Perth across the Nullarbor Plain. The drive from Whyalla to Ceduna, the next realistic stop on this journey and end point of the Nullarbor Links golf course, is another 456km. An alternative journey-breaker is Kimba, home of impressive silo art.

Whyalla is also en route to Port Lincoln, home of shark cage dive tours and hub for visits to the Coffin Bay oyster sheds. The drive from Adelaide to Port Lincoln takes around seven hours, making Whyalla a reasonable choice for a stop in at least one direction.

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