Day 35 / 2014 - Whyalla

We are in Whyalla and had planned to leave today but as the weather was so nice and predicted hot weather where we were heading we decided to stay another day so here we are sitting out front of the van over looking Spencers Gulf.

We left Port Lincoln on Thursday stopping off at Tumby Bay for lunch then stopping at an overnight rest area just 50 Km south of Whyalla not far from the Iron Duke mine which provides Iron Ore for the town. Friday we drove into Whyalla and setup camp at the Discovery Foreshore Holiday Park with a site right on the beach. After setting up Anne had made a list of the tourist attractions we wanted to see such as the HMAS Whyalla and some of the lookouts so off we set.

HMAS Whyalla is a World War 2 Corvette Class Mine Sweeper and Escort ship built by BHP and was used mainly in the waters north of Australia and around the Pacific. At the end of her service she was pensioned off and sold to the Mebourne Public Works where she was renamed Rip and used to clear The Rip, which is a channel of water connecting Port Phillip Bay to Bass Strait, using explosives as well as a lighthouse maintenance vessel. She was finnally sold for scrap and picked up by the City of Whyalla for the princely sum of $5,000. It was then move 2 Km inland to its present site and is now part of the Whyalla Maritime Museum. When it was in Naval Service it carried up to 120 men in cramped quarters while as the Rip it carried 20 Men. There is also a building housing maritime historical information about the roll BHP played durring the war as well as the history of the HMAS Whyalla. For the Toy... sorry Model train buffs there is a great Model Railway setup depicting how rail is used in the area.

From there we went up to Flinders lookout which had a view into town and Spencers Gulf then onto Hummer Lookout which gave a sweeping view of the Steelworks and loading wharf as well as Spencers Gulf and prt of the town. Driving back we also came across a statue of The Loaded dog which is from Henry Lawsons poem of the same name.

Whyalla is a town proberbly of similar layout to Port Headland with a population of 30,000 people. There is a port for loading ships with ore as well as a number of shopping centres supporting the town. There is a slight tinge of red on some of the old buildings close to the port area. The day we arrived the wind was blowing quite fearcly where we couldn't even sit outside and we hoped this wouldn't last. The next day was a complete change with gentle breases and sunny day. We decided to stay another day as there was more of the same weather predicted and our destination as going to be hotter.Tomorrow we are thinking of heading to Iron Knob.