Whyalla is a strange town with a multiple personality disorder - it cannot quite make up its mind what it wants to be.

It started off life being big in ship building and steel work, and still has a large industrial hub and a port full of very serious looking ships. More recently it has tried to appeal to the tourists by building up its foreshore precinct, and to trade by installing a large shopping mall - each at different ends of the town.

On our first trip twelve years ago we had stopped at the tourist info centre at the start of town when approaching from Port Augusta. This houses the maritime Museum and a very large metal ship representing the ship building industry. We had arrived on a stinking hot day, and decided to check out the Maritime Museum which was air conditioned. The tour included a look inside the large metal ship - which wasn't. It was so hot in there we couldn't breathe. Then we were told although the town was on the coast, there was no beach - so we quickly moved on.

Since then they had done a lot of work to build a beach just down from the port, shipping in vast quantities of sand and designing a very nice foreshore with lawns, shade shelters, barbecues and playgrounds. There was also a marina for small pleasure craft. The caravan park was at the end of this strip. The problem was the beach was extremely shallow and no good for any sort of swimming. For this reason one corner of the marina was cordoned off for swimming, with a pontoon and everything.

The original 'town centre' was close to the foreshore and the port, but this consisted of one small street with very few shops (most of which were shut now anyway being the week between Christmas and New Year.) Apparently the commercial hub had moved down to the other end of town to a place called West Land.

The day we arrived at Whyalla was grey and cold and rainy - very unusual for this area, but a blessing in disguise. We sought out the Tourist Info Centre, and found it right on the outskirts of town, as we were entering from the south side. On the way through we saw signs pointing to 'Shopping Centre', 'Port and foreshore precinct', 'town centre' etc - each in a different direction, and we were very confused until we could actually see it on a map.

We went to West Land to stock up as they had a Coles and a Woolies. But apart from department store chains there was little else. No decent café to speak of.

We found a nice park to eat our feed of crabs, to clear some room in the fridge. They were delicious - sweet and soft and tender. Had to fight off the flies though, who were also very interested.

The weather improved by the afternoon so we settled into the caravan park and had a nice stroll down the foreshore and to the marina.

GeorgeY's Bit

Whyalla was celebrating the steel works being sold to Mr. Gupta, an Indian millionaire investor, who promised to turn it to a world class facility. The community was pleased to hear of job security, and politicians were claiming credit for working together to secure future jobs. I hope this works, somehow the older I get the more cynical I become. There is a reason for my concerns other than cynicism. Most big industry icons are sold to populous countries like China and India. They also need jobs for their boys, and their boys are happy to work harder for less. When did Finland or Sweden buy a factory or a farm in Oz? Good luck for our workers if this is going to work, but selling Australia for a short term gain by a politician is not the way to a bright future. Make whatever you want out of this.