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BRIGHT LIGHTS: The view you'll get of the steelworks during the twilight tour. Picture: John Murray
If you’ve never seen a blast furnace tapped, red-hot coke pushed onto a train or the spectacular reheat furnace in action … this week is your big chance to see the Whyalla Steelworks in operation.
You have a chance to see these and many more sights at the GFG Alliance Whyalla Steelworks during a special twilight tour this Wednesday. The Whyalla Visitor and Information Centre has added a twilight tour to its schedule to help celebrate South Australia’s History Festival.
The visitor centre runs regular daytime tours of the steelworks but the twilight time slot adds a whole new dimension to this fascinating look at Whyalla’s major industry.
GFG Alliance Media and Communications Manager, Sean Kelly said the twilight tours will be an extra special sight with the chance to see molten iron and red hot coke in a spectacular evening-hours display.
“It will be something different for those people that have never been to the steelworks at night,” Sean said.
“It is an impressive sight to see the steelworks at night with opportunities to see the blast furnace release molten iron into a treadwell, or push the red-hot coke into a hot car ready to use as fuel for the furnace.
“It really is quite spectacular and worth seeing, even if you have already seen the steelworks in operation during the day.”
SPECTACULAR: The coke ovens at the Whyalla Steelworks.
Visitor Centre Team Leader, Teresa Coles said the twilight tours were a unique opportunity for people and one of the key celebrations of South Australia’s History Festival for Whyalla.
“By joining this bus tour, you’ll not only see some amazing sights of the steelworks in the evening hours, you’ll also hear the story behind over 100 years of significant iron and steel making history in Whyalla,” Teresa said.
“Your guide will explain how hematite and magnetite iron ore from the nearby South Middleback Ranges is transformed into over 90 different grades of steel and you’ll also get to see some of the processes first-hand.”
The twilight tour will take you to Hummock Hill to see the steelworks lit up in the evening. At the site you will pass the blast furnace, coke ovens, reed beds, steelmaking and casting plant and the rolling mills, where structural steel, rail line and steel railway sleeper sections are made. As a fully operational site, we can't guarantee that all processes will be happening during the tour but there will be plenty to see.
FIERY STUFF: Coke in a hot car at the Whyalla Steelworks.
Those on the tour are taken by bus around the steelworks with all the necessary safety measures in place. The tour starts at the visitor centre at 5.30pm where you will be shown an informative video before the bus leaves at 6pm and returns at 7.30pm.
To book your place, call (08) 8645 7900 or Toll free 1800 088 589 or email the visitor centre on visitor.centre@whyalla.sa.gov.au. The Whyalla Visitor Information Centre is Open Mon - Fri 9am - 4pm, Weekends and Public Holidays 10am-4pm. Closed only on Good Friday and Christmas Day.
Cost: Adults $22; Concession $19.00; Children $10.00; Family (2 adults & 2 children) $54.00, extra children $5.50 each. Bookings Essential. Children must be seven-years or older.