Not Before Time

Happy Easter everyone. Hope you are all having the fantastic weather we are having here in Whyalla. Beautiful clear blue skies and sunny days, and nice cool nights so we sleep well.

The Easter Bunny came round all the vans/motorhomes in the showgrounds and left a chocolate easter egg on our steps – how good is that!

Today we’re just bumming around. We started off the day with some yummy ricotta pancakes for breakfast, and we’re cooking a roast lamb for lunch to share with Jan and Sherrill. Nice and relaxing.

Yesterday we went to the Fishy Fringe Festival has been running for 6 years now. The festival combines art, music, dance, creative workshops and roving performing artist into a family festival which is held on the Whyalla foreshore. It was a beautiful day weatherwise and was lovely wandering around.

There was a baby animal nursery set up for the children. These chooks were having a huge fight with the white one being particularly aggressive – it was very funny to watch. Eventually the black chook walked away – he was very dignified.

Down at the marina, the dolphins had come in for a feed (they normally follow in the boats as they will usually get some sort of fish thrown to them). They are also very used to posing for people on the boat ramp to take their photos, they are real show offs.

The pelicans didn’t look very happy about the dolphins getting all the attention (and the fish).

The tide was out so no fishing, but we did go for a paddle

The rally has now finished, and most of the motorhomes have left the showgrounds, but a few are staying on until after Easter – most of the coastal parks are full over the Easter/school holiday period and if everyone is like us, then they haven’t booked anywhere.

Along with friends we’ve met here, Jan and Sherrill, we went out and played tourist on Thursday, starting with a trip to the Whyalla Maritime Museum which is well worth a visit.

The museum was established in 1988 when the first ship built at the Whyalla’s BHP shipyards in 1941 – HMAS Whyalla – was permanently landlocked two kilometres from the sea, and the museum appears to have been built around it. The museum’s collection centres mainly around the naval history of 4 World War Two corvettes built in Whyalla, the BHP shipbuilding industry and the natural history and maritime heritage of the upper Spencer Gulf. There is also some information about the shipbuilding process and about the geology and geography of the region, shipwrecks in the Spencer Gulf and marine species. There is also a video of the ship being transported 2 kilometres inland which was quite an undertaking. And for those who love trains, don’t miss the model train exhibit out the back.

We got to the museum in time for the tour of HMAS Whyalla, an Australian designed anti-submarine and mine –sweeping vessel. The tour was really interesting – our guide was very well informed and answered every question thrown at her. David was more interested in the engineering side, I was more interested in how the crew lived on the ship. The tour lasts about 45-50 minutes and they run a few during the day. It’s good value too – $8 entry fee

Here’s a brief, condensed, history of Whyalla. If you aren’t interested, then skip ahead. I personally really enjoy finding out the history of the towns we stay in as we travel around.

Whyalla came about when iron ore was discovered at Iron Knob in the mid 1800’s and in 1901 BHP acquired leases in an area known as Hummock Hill so they could work the ore which they used in their smelter in Port Pirie. Workers were sent from Port Pirie to build a tramway to the ore deposits at Iron Knob and the town of Hummock Hill was created. (Although Matthew Flinders actually named Hummock Hill in 1802 when he passed through the area). Then a jetty was constructed to load the ore onto barges and at the end of 1901 the population of the town was almost 50.

For a long time, Hummock Hill was a remote settlement and shipping port. Most of the housing consisted of tents and huts constructed of basic materials. Apparently popular methods of cladding houses were flattened kerosene tins or whitewashed wheat bags.
Transport was still by horse and cart, and water was brought from Port Pirie in barges and sold for two shillings for 100 gallons. In 1903 the first store was built followed in 1905 by a community hall which was also the first school.

When the first telephone service was installed in 1911 the town became less isolated and Hummock Hill became Whyalla when the town was officially proclaimed on 16 April 1914. Whyalla’s first policeman arrived three weeks later. In 1915, an ore conveyor belt on the jetty became operational and more ore was able to be loaded onto the ships. BHP had begun to build a steelworks at Newcastle and the ore produced at Iron Knob was now being sent there to produce steel.

In the early years, BHP provided most of the services and amenities in town such as a dairy, a new power house, a desalination plant and a power line to Iron Knob. In 1939 construction of the harbour and blast furnace commenced, but people were starting to get worried about the imminent outbreak of World War II. The Royal Australian Navy asked BHP if they were able and willing to build patrol ships, and so the construction of shipyards next to the blast furnace site was also begun. All of this work required labour and the influx of workers into the town saw the population rise drastically, as did businesses and facilities for the residents. In 1940, the Whyalla Hospital, the Abattoirs, a cinema, another school and more hotels were all opened or being built and the shipyards began work.

During the war years Whyalla’s population had increased to more than 5000. Another significant event was the opening of the Morgan to Whyalla pipeline which made water readily available to the town. However, Whyalla was still a company town and the residents were starting to think about how the town was being run, so in 1945 a Town Commission was formed. This Commission provided Whyalla’s first local government.
In 1958, BHP announced they were building an integrated steelworks at their site in Whyalla. This allowed them to mine and process the ore in the one area. By 1961 the population had reached over 14,000, and Whyalla was proclaimed a city in November.

Due to the ship-building slump in the 1970s, the Whyalla shipyards closed down in 1978. The city, after a population peak of 33,000 in 1976, has stabilised at around the 25,000 mark. Whyalla is now the biggest rural town in South Australia.

After the museum we went to the foreshore for a picnic lunch then up to the lookout at Hummock Hill. There are some great views from the lookout. In Whyalla the ore is taken out to the tankers in barges as the water isn’t deep enough for them to come in, and as you can see, the tide goes out a fair way in this part of the country.

This past couple of weeks we’ve been in Whyalla, South Australia, staying at the showgrounds. The first week here was for us to attend the CMCA (Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia) rally and then we decided to stay the extra week until after Easter (since we hadn’t booked anywhere and would have trouble getting in to a park anywhere along the SA coast).

The rally was good – over 700 motorhomes and fifth wheelers. Here’s a shot from the roof of our van showing the queue into the rally site

And here’s a couple from the roof showing everyone on site

We’ve had a lot of fun catching up with friends we’ve made on the road and making some new ones. The organisers did a really good job. There were lots of interesting things to do on site. There are many craftspeople on the road so there were workshops in quilting, knitting, weaving, appliqué, macramé, decorative painting etc. There were also a vintage car display and seminars on HF Radio, Communication on the road, Satellite TV stuff and other more blokey things that David went along to, as well as entertainment every night, poets breakfasts each morning, morning teas, tour bookings on site, and buses into town every hour. One thing most of the women thought was great was the laundry service. For $15 you could fill a basket (provided) with as much washing as you could fit in, and it would be picked up, washed, dried, folded and returned to you later in the day. I think we kept them very busy. The town itself offered discounts at most of the shops and clubs to all CMCA members and we found the people in the shops and clubs really friendly and welcoming.

One of the highlights of the entertainment was a guy called Jim Haynes who performed at one of the night time entertainment shows and also one or two of the poets breakfasts. He also ran workshops on writing bush poetry. Jim is an author, bush poet, and very funny comedian. Here’s his website http://www.jimhaynes.net – if you get the opportunity to go see him, then do yourself a favour and go.

Also appearing with Jim was country singer/songwriter Amber Lawrence – http://www.amberlawrence.com” . Amber’s a favourite of ours and another entertainer to catch if you get the chance.

There were also a few trade stands around the site, selling goodies for travelers such as thermal cookers and inverters, but I did hear a few comments about there not being as many as there usually are at the rallies. This was our first rally so we didn’t have anything to compare it to, but we found it very good. Of course, a lot of it is what you make it. We did hear some grumbles about other rallies being better/bigger etc, but we really enjoyed this one.

Ok – I have 1 little gripe – while most of the people here were really great, and we met some lovely people, unfortunately there are a (small) number of older people who are among the rudest I’ve ever met! They pushed and shoved their way through people to get to the front, or out of a venue, or trying to be first in line for something that others have been waiting patiently for. They seem to think their age entitles them to being given way to or allows them to be crabby. Good manners work a lot better. I hope I never get like that – but I think David would shoot me if I did

I did hear from some of the men that on the market day there was virtually nothing for the blokes – it was mainly lovely hand made craft items, which apparently appealed to the women more. A lot of the items being sold (cards, jewellery, quilted, sewn, knitted and crocheted items) were actually made by CMCA members, and it is mainly the women who make these crafted items, selling them on the road or at events like this when there are organized market days. Plus, it’s mainly the women who buy this sort of stuff as gifts for family and friends. Maybe the guys need to either organise stuff themselves or drop hints to the rally committee to see if they could get more traders along who sell ‘blokey’ stuff.

It was also a bit disappointing to be told a couple of times by local people in town that some of our members (again, it was only a few) were quite rude and were telling local businesses that ‘we’ are bringing a lot of money into their town and that they should be grateful. This appears to be in response to them not getting some sort of expected discount. Quite a lot of the local businesses did offer discounts to rally participants, and this was done in the form of a book of discount vouchers, but apparently some participants wanted/expected more. While it’s true that we do inject money into the towns, I don’t get why people think they have a right to discounted goods because of it. The local councils also spend a fair amount of money ensuring we have the necessary facilities for the rallies. Perhaps the locals need to take note of the member number (shown on the tag most of us wear) of the person saying this and report back to the CMCA.

Ok, that’s the end of my rant.

The rally was good, we really enjoyed it, and hopefully we can make the Tassie one next year.

For some reason, I thought I had posted here about our trip back to SA from Melbourne a few weeks ago – I think I wrote the post up but never got around to actually posting in on our website, and now I’ve lost my write up – must be getting old! Anyway, I basically just wanted to put up some photos of these kangaroos which I’ve never seen before. Didn’t even know they came in colours other than red and dun coloured!

At Bordertown there is a wildlife park which has white kangaroos and they were all out when we were passing through. They were a bit camera shy but I managed to get a couple of shots. Now I know what Rolf Harris means in his song, Six White Boomers!