Premier Peter Malinauskas to announce housing for hydrogen power plant workers in Whyalla infrastructure blitz

The Premier will kickstart a regional infrastructure blitz by announcing deals with two holiday parks to head off a major roadblock.

More than 80 cabins will be built to ease a regional housing crisis and kickstart a Whyalla “infrastructure blitz”, spearheaded by a $600m hydrogen power plant.

Premier Peter Malinauskas, who on Sunday starts a three-day major economic summit across the Upper Spencer Gulf, will reveal the first tranche of housing for up to 1000 workers at the hydrogen plant outside Whyalla.

In a deal struck with two South Australian firms, 32 cabins will be built at Whyalla’s foreshore caravan park and at least another 50 at a Lincoln Hwy greenfield site, near the city’s airport.

Action to arrest severe housing shortages across regional SA was demanded at last August’s Advertiser Bush Summit, which heard Adelaide’s accommodation crisis was “many times worse in the regions”.

Premier Peter Malinauskas and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at Whyalla steelworks in September, 2023. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

Mr Malinauskas is using the economic summit to spruik an Upper Spencer Gulf reindustrialisation plan for clean energy and green iron, headlined by a desalination plant and pipeline network forecast to create more than 4200 jobs.

“This is the start of an infrastructure blitz for Whyalla. The accommodation that will house the temporary workforce needed to see the hydrogen jobs plan (power plant) through to fruition will leave a lasting legacy that will benefit Whyalla’s business and tourism sectors long into the future,” he said.

Civil works and construction on the $593m hydrogen power station, electrolysers and storage facility – just north of Whyalla – are expected to start in the second half of 2024.

An impression of the Discovery Parks’ Whyalla cabin accommodation. Picture: supplied.

In the first tranche of the one-bedroom cabins, 32 will be built at Discovery Parks’ Whyalla Foreshore caravan and holiday park, in time for the first workers of an expected 1000 workers on the hydrogen plant.

Discovery Parks expect this will cost about $9m, of which a state government rent guarantee will cover about half the cost.

If hydrogen power plant workers are not using the cabins, Discovery Parks can rent them to the public.

In the second tranche, the 18ha Kloeden Reserve will be divided into four allotments and a heads of agreement has been struck with Bentley’s Cabin Parks to build 50 cabins.

Bentley’s wants to buy at market rates and develop 6.94ha of state land on the reserve’s southeastern corner.

The state government is working with Whyalla City Council to find other government-owned land parcels for housing.

Whyalla Mayor Phil Stone said the region needed more housing and infrastructure to capitalise on a once-in-a-generation economic opportunity.

“The Upper Spencer Gulf is South Australia’s engine room to cut pollution, boost green manufacturing and deliver energy production on a massive scale," he said.