Steeling for a renewable future

Whyalla is banking on the emerging hydrogen and renewable energy industries to turn around its declining population and help it reclaim the mantle of the state’s second largest city.

The population of Whyalla has been in decline since former steelworks owner Arrium went into voluntary administration in 2016, sliding to 21,478 in 2020.

While this represents a fall of about 1000 people over the past five years, the long-term trend shows a decline from a peak of 31,000 in the early 1980s when Whyalla was South Australia’s largest regional city.

These days that title is held by Mount Gambier with a population of a tick under 30,000 but Whyalla Council CEO Justin Commons says the steel city is “on the cusp of a turnaround”.

“My view is that Whyalla will grow to be the largest city outside of metro Adelaide over time,” he told InDaily.

That confidence is largely based on the emergence of Port Bonython, 16km from Whyalla, as a frontrunner to become a major hydrogen hub after being earmarked by the state and federal governments.

The State Government recently shortlisted seven major renewable hydrogen projects at the 2000-hectare Port Bonython hub, which includes a 2.4km jetty and deep-sea port.

“Both the state and federal governments have got a really strong focus on hydrogen as a future fuel source for our nation and we believe there will be some announcements made very shortly in terms of tens of billions of dollars’ worth of private sector investment going into the Port Bonython area,” Commons said.

“I think it will take at least three years to get all the planning approvals in place with construction continuing over five to eight years.

“In that time, we’ll have thousands of jobs available in Whyalla to support the development of that mega hydrogen facility and some estimates I’ve seen show about 800-1000 ongoing jobs in our city, so that is huge.

There is increasing pressure on Australia to further ramp up its renewable energy generation and move away from fossil fuels following the recent COP-26 summit in Glasgow.

When in opposition in 2012, former prime minister Tony Abbott warned that Whyalla would be wiped off the map by a carbon tax being proposed at the time by the Gillard government.

This was countered by then trade minister Craig Emerson dancing and singing "No Whyalla wipe-out, there on my TV" to the tune of Skyhooks' 1970s hit Horror Movie during an ABC interview.

New steelworks owner Sanjeev Gutpa has spruiked his vision to use renewable energy generated in the region to make ‘green steel’ but those plans are yet to be put into place.

The State Government and commodities multinational Trafigura last week committed to a feasibility study to examine the potential for a $750 million hydrogen facility in Port Pirie.

Trafigura, majority owners of Nyrstar – operators of the Port Pirie lead smelter – has committed to a $5 million “front end engineering and design” study for the potential facility, with costs for the feasibility assessment jointly-funded by the State Government.

The final $750 million facility would hold a 440-megawatt electrolyser, which could supply the entire oxygen needs of the lead smelter and produce significant quantities of ammonia for export.

If it goes ahead, the project is expected to created up to 300 jobs during construction.

Commons said there was a huge opportunity for the Whyalla, Port Augusta and Port Pirie region that was once dubbed the iron triangle to be rebadged as the green triangle.

"If you drive into Port Augusta now, where previously they had a big coal-fired power station you now have huge wind turbines coming out of the ground,” he said.

“Port Augusta and Whyalla are blessed with sun and wind so the number of renewable energy projects are really significant in our region.

“What will happen over time is South Australia will become a net exporter of energy both to interstate through the new interconnector with New South Wales and also to overseas with ammonia and hydrogen being delivered.

“The only thing we are missing is a supply of water – we are currently relying on the Murray River. It is probably inevitable that part of the development at Port Bonython would include a desalination plant to supply the water necessary for the production of hydrogen and that’s one little thing we need to address.”

While renewable hydrogen and renewable energy are being hailed as the way forward for Whyalla, the council acknowledges an abundance of future jobs is only part of the issue.

Another key consideration is to reshape the city to become a place where more people actually want to live.

A distinctive new $7.8 million jetty made from local steel opened last year and attracts about 600 walkers a day.

On the back of this success, the council is working on a foreshore precinct plan that includes a nine-storey $100 million international hotel featuring a combination of short stay apartments and a tier one hotel.

The council has also recently completed an upgrade at Whyalla Airport.

Whyalla’s Bennett Oval was this year named the South Australian winner of the AFL’s Ken Gannon Community Facility Project of the Year Award following a major upgrade that led to it hosting an AFL pre-season match between Port Adelaide and Western Bulldogs in March 2020.

A $100 million school – Whyalla Secondary College – will open in January between the University of South Australia and TAFE SA campuses.

It will free up the original Whyalla high school and the Edward John Eyre high school sites for potential redevelopment.

The Whyalla high site is within a few hundred metres of the main town beach and jetty, within the foreshore precinct.

“We are in discussions with the State Government about the repurposing of that site to support the vision of the master plan for improving the liveability of our city, providing more retail and commercial opportunities along the foreshore and really starting to make Whyalla a destination in terms of visitor experience,” Commons said.

“There is certainly great opportunity to reimagine what the role and function of that old part of town is.

Commons said Whyalla still had some of the very first South Australia Housing Trust homes built in the state.

“One of our biggest challenges in Whyalla is trying to get some renewal and regeneration into our housing stock to create a liveable city where families and young professionals want to come and live and work,” he said.

“The investment we are looking for in our foreshore precinct is all about improving the liveability and amenity of our city for residents and also visitors.

“We actually need something similar to what has been recently announced at Aldinga Beach and there is no reason why Whyalla couldn’t have housing developments of a scale of what you get in Adelaide.”

Whyalla originally emerged as a service base for Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited’s (BHP) iron ore jetty and was proclaimed a town in 1914 .

BHP extended its industrial activities in Whyalla by building shipyards and a blast furnace in 1940 and the growing town was proclaimed a city in 1961.

The steelworks started production in 1965, providing materials to locally build 66 ships until the Whyalla shipyards closed in 1978.

At that time the city’s population had reached 30,000 but it has been in steady decline since about 1981.

The steelworks has remained the city’s main industry since the split with BHP in 2000 and changed its name to Arrium in 2012 before the company was placed into voluntary administration in 2016, sparking a new wave of population decline.

Whyalla Jetty

Bennett Oval

UK-based Sanjeev Gupta was hailed a saviour of the Whyalla business and town after his GFG Alliance took over the steelworks in 2017, vowing to expand the operation and predicting the region’s population could swell to 50,000.

GFG had planned a $1 billion upgrade at Whyalla but that was delayed by up to seven years last year as the global alliance flagged huge cuts amid sluggish steel sales at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, high steel and iron ore prices and a refinancing deal to secure the operation’s future in Australia this year have confidence high.

“It’s really pleasing that GFG has now turned the steelworks around and where they were running at about a $20 million a month loss, they’ve now turned that around and they are now in the black,” Commons said.

“There was a bit of uncertainty earlier in the year with GFG having to refinance their operations but now they have demonstrated that the steelworks can be profitable and they have secured that funding.

“That’s starting to put more confidence back into the community and in time you’ll start seeing more businesses investing.

“There is no doubt there are lots of jobs in the region at present – a constant thing I hear from all employers is they have trouble attracting and retaining staff so there’s no shortage of work.”

Whyalla originally was centred around the, steelworks, jetty and foreshore precinct and although services such as police, courts and the civic centre are still located in this run-down corner of the city, the commercial heart is now centred around Westlands, the Eyre Peninsula’s largest shopping centre.

This more modern precinct is also where the new school and tertiary institutions are located.

The former John Eyre high school, which closed its doors last week, is diagonally opposite Westlands and is now surplus to Education Department requirements.

Commons said the council was in discussions with the State Government about building a new Whyalla CBD on the former school site and relocating key services.

“The heart now is in the centre of the city and you’ve got users such as council, police, courts still in the old part of town and we really need to think whether that is that the most appropriate place to have those services and facilities or should they be co-located in the CBD and that’s part of the conversation we’re having with the State Government.

“I think there will be a turning of the tide and there will be more people coming into Whyalla but in terms of significant population increase it will take five to eight years to really come on line.

“That will depend on whether the state and federal governments provide the investment into some of the supporting facilities and the amenity of our city to support the private sector investment that will happen.”

Whyalla Steelworks

Hotel Bay View’s original art deco building on Forsyth Street