City Update - Friday 13 January 23

Circular economy

What's old is new again. The discarded planks from Whyalla's old jetty have been recycled and turned into furniture to be used right across the city. This is part of our commitment to a circular economy, ensuring we reuse and recycle as much as possible. Be sure to keep an eye out for more as they're installed over the coming weeks .

Pictured with the first of the furniture to be installed (at the foreshore) are Open Spaces Coordinator Matt Rotherham, left, School-Based Trainee Dakota Knowles, and Project Manager Landscape Sam Bourne.

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Annual report released

Our annual report for the 2021/2022 financial year has now been released, providing an in-depth summary of all of Council’s activities during this period. Key highlights included

• Completing our $12.1 million airport security, terminal and runway safety upgrade (primarily Federal-Government funded)
• Adopting our Foreshore Master Plan, following extensive community consultation and input
• Delivering the third and final year of the $14m Road Delivery Program
• Implementing live virtual council meetings, which were livestreamed and recorded (recordings could be viewed on our YouTube channel)
• Introducing social media two-way engagement, creating another avenue for customer service
• Commencing long-term planning to ensure our city is poised and ready to capitalise on the major projects on the horizon, particularly in relation to hydrogen, ensuring workers choose to live and work in Whyalla (rather than fly-in / fly-out)

You can view the annual report on our website.

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South Aussie with Cosi book giveaway

Want to win a FREE Top 100 Places To Visit in SA book by South Aussie with Cosi (which includes Whyalla, of course)? Share with us your favourite photos of Whyalla and surrounding areas by 5pm today (Friday 13 January) and it could be yours!

Simply post your photo in the comments of our Facebook post, or email visitor.centre@whyalla.sa.gov.au. We’ll contact the winners directly the week after the competition closes.

The book is also available for purchase (just $24.95) from the Visitor Information Centre and Visitor Information Centre Pod. See our Facebook post for all the terms and conditions.

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Children’s leisure pool reopened

We're pleased to confirm that both the children's leisure pool and the main 25-metre pool at the Whyalla Recreation Centre are now open to the public 🥳🏊‍♀️ Be sure to get down there and make use of the facility during the warmer weather 🌞 A reminder the inflatable will also be set up on selected days in the 25-metre pool. Click the link for more information and to book 😀 https://www.trybooking.com/CENLJ.

We thank the community for their understanding while the repairs were undertaken. We'll have more updates on the more substantial upgrades in the coming weeks.

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School holiday fun

It’s school holiday time and there is lots to do around our city! The Whyalla Public Library has a great program of events for children and families of all ages; the uneARTh Hub will host some FREE drop-in sessions from Thursday 19 January; and the Whyalla Maritime Museum is running its Aussie Animal Adventure for all to enjoy.

Read all about it on our website.

Longer opening times for visitors

A reminder that the Visitor Information Centre Pod at the foreshore has extended opening hours during the school holidays - now open Monday to Friday 9am - 1pm and 10am - 2pm on weekends. This will be in place until Friday January 27. So head on down, enjoy some sea air and say hi to the team!

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Australia Day Celebrations

Planning is well underway for the 2023 Australia Day celebrations, which will see the long-awaited return of a day of events and activities for the community to enjoy! The day will begin with the Whyalla Harriers Fun Run leaving from Ada Ryan Gardens at 8am, followed by an Australia Day Picnic (also in Ada Ryan Gardens) from 11am – 3.30pm, and the Citizen of the Year Awards and Citizenship Ceremony held at the Whyalla City Council Civic Building chamber from 2pm. Read all about the celebrations on our website.

More detail to come soon on the free bus service on the day

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Our Town

We've received confirmation that the Whyalla episode of OUR TOWN will premiere on 7TWO at 3.30pm on Sunday 5 February, with an encore at 2pm on Friday 10 February. We'll provide more updates in the lead-up, but here are some photos from the shoot in the meantime.

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Assisting cuttlefish and local students

We’ve partnered with Santos, AusOcean and the Whyalla Secondary College to research and monitor the annual migration of the Australian Giant Cuttlefish breeding in the waters of the upper Spencer Gulf.

A key component of Whyalla Secondary College’s STEM program is ‘Network Blue’ by AusOcean. This program supports the construction of a rig – a low-cost sea surface platform for supporting ocean science in coastal waters.

Everything from construction, deployment and monitoring of the rig is undertaken by year 9 students at Whyalla Secondary College, and the project has been incorporated into their STEM curriculum. To date, approximately 30 students have taken part in the course and deployed a rig at Stony Point.

In addition, signs have been installed at the cuttlefish dive site with information on the program, as well as QR codes for visitors to watch the cuttlefish migration. To date, AusOcean has recorded over 24,000 live stream views from over 23 countries as a result of the deployment of live underwater cameras at Stony Point.

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Steelworks tours

Interested in finding out more about our major employer?  Then be sure to climb aboard the steelworks tour bus

Steelworks tours depart from the Whyalla Visitor Centre each Monday, Wednesday and Friday (excluding public holidays) at 9.30am. The tours take approximately 1.5 hours, and along the journey you will hear stories and see behind the scenes of more than 100 years of significant Australia iron ore and steelmaking history.

Bookings are essential and closed in footwear is required. Contact the Visitors Information Centre on (08) 8645 7900 or toll free 1800 088 589 for more information and to book your seat onboard the tour bus!

Our fabulous steelworks tour guide Rod Masters, left, with John from Port Augusta, who took a tour with his brother-in-law (also named John!) from Queensland.