The glory days are gone but Whyalla has a future retiring MP Gary Gray says

WHYALLA has a sound future with plenty of well-paying jobs but it may not resemble the Steel City’s former glory days, says one of its most successful graduates.

Labor MP Gary Gray in his office at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

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WHYALLA has a sound future with plenty of well-paying jobs but it may not resemble the Steel City’s former glory days, says one of its most successful graduates.

Retiring Federal MP and former resources minister Gary Gray, who came out with his family in 1966 as one of thousands of 10-pound Poms, believes the city should position itself as a mining services hub.

“The resources in the region are world class,” he said.

“Whyalla is very resilient and I am sure the region will continue to be a major contributor to Australia’s exports and be a significant employment centre for the region.

“There is definitely a future for Whyalla in becoming a mining services hub and playing a role in the development of some of those key resources in the region such as (the Iron Road) magnetite (project on the Eyre Peninsula).”

The iron ore from Arrium’s Middleback Ranges was also high quality, Mr Gray said.

The city’s biggest employer, Arrium, has been placed into voluntary receivership with 3000 direct jobs — about one quarter of all workers in Whyalla — at risk in the coming months.

It comes as the state is battling nation-leading unemployment, with the Holden plant scheduled to close in 2017, and the shipbuilding industry desperately trying to secure multibillion-dollar defence contracts such as the Future Submarines and Offshore Patrol Vessels.

Whyalla has produced some of the state’s biggest sporting stars, and SA footy legend Graham Cornes and former Formula One driver and Le Mans winner Vern Schuppan have also called for action to ensure the city’s survival.

Retiring MP Gary Gray at Parliament House in Canberra. Photo Kym Smith

Mr Gray graduated as dux of Whyalla High in 1976, before he moved to Canberra to study economics at the Australian National University.

After university, he rose up the Labor ranks and became the party’s national secretary after former prime minster Paul Keating’s famous 1993 election for the “true believers”.

He represents the WA seat of Brand but still has family, including his mother Olive, living in Whyalla. Some of his family recently left Arrium.

“I was one of the many 10-pound Poms who came to Whyalla,” he said.

But Mr Gray said Whyalla residents needed to understand the city was likely to change as a result of the trouble faced by Arrium — the city’s largest private employer.

“Whyalla has gone through major periods of change before and when I was growing up there they were still building ships there,” he said.

“The future may not be the same of the recent past — but there is one for Whyalla.”

Cornes lived in Whyalla between 1965 and 1967 during the height of the boom times.

Football legend Graham Cornes lived in Whyalla at the height of the boom times, in the 1960s.

He moved to the city to take up a traineeship in industrial chemistry with BHP and played football for Central Whyalla before starting his SANFL career with the Glenelg Tigers in 1967.

“I have very warm memories about my time in Whyalla and it has produced some amazing sporting talents,” he said. “South Australia’s greatest-ever footballer Barrie Robran was from Whyalla.”

During his time in the Steel City, the plant was working around-the-clock and employees had job security if they were willing to work hard.

“There were three shifts a day and the place was really happening in those years,” Cornes said.

Whyalla’s steelworks needs to be protected, according to Cornes.

“State and federal governments need to do everything they can to ensure the plant can adapt to make it competitive in the international market,” he said.

“But I also think there is huge potential in Whyalla for fishing and aquaculture.”

Schuppan said his passion for motorsport might never have eventuated if he didn’t grow up in Whyalla.

“My father was a car agent in town and sold Chryslers and other cars so I learned to drive at a young age,” he said.

“I remember my father letting me take the wheel and steer when we went on fishing trips when I was about six years old. There wouldn’t have been that freedom if I wasn’t living somewhere in the country like Whyalla.”

Schuppan left for Europe to chase his racing dream when he was 26. He loaded an old Ford van on a ship sailing to England and bought himself a ticket and went from there.

He made his debut in Formula One in 1972 and won the 24-hour Le Mans endurance race in 1983.

“There aren’t any easy answers but Whyalla was a really great place and something needs to be done,” he said.

“But the question is really, what can be done?”

Whyalla acting Mayor Tom Antonio said state and federal governments needed to buy more local steel in major infrastructure projects.

“This State Government policy to buy Australian-standard steel is useless because it doesn’t guarantee it is going to be made in Whyalla,” he said.

“There has been a billions of dollars spent in Adelaide on infrastructure but how much of that steel came from Whyalla?

“And the same goes for the Federal Government with all the money they give other state governments for their major infrastructure projects.”

Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said State Government projects used Whyalla and Australian steel where possible but some products were not made here.

“All the steel that can be made here, at Arrium by Whyalla workers, is used on our projects,” Mr Koutsantonis said.

“There’s some steel materials that we have to import because it’s not made in Australia.”

AS THE HEAT BUILDS, FAMILY LOOKS TO FORGE NEW LINKS

BRIAN and Taryn Walden are facing up to the ­reality that they may have to move and change careers to keep providing for their family.

The Whyalla couple have three young children and are changing careers into the fitness industry as the city’s main employer, Arrium, has gone into voluntary administration.

Brian is a maintenance worker at Arrium’s concentrator plant in the South Middleback Ranges, 55km from Whyalla. The magnetite concentrate it produces is used to create the pellets that are the primary feed for the Whyalla steelmaking process, while excess concentrate and pellets are exported.

He works in difficult conditions replacing worn metal plates of retaining walls. “Not many people like getting dirty and crawling in holes so that’s how we earn a living,” he said.

The couple previously lived in Roxby Downs and Port Augusta and have spent eight years in Whyalla raising Connor, 10, Amelia, 7, and Ivy, 3.

“ Wherever Brian goes (for work) we go too. We want to stay as a unit,” said Taryn, who runs her own business in family day care. “The reality is if there’s no work here, there’s no choice — we have to go somewhere else.”

They’d be sad to leave. “It’s a great town with a lot of community events. And it’s beautiful with lovely beaches,” Brian said.

The Walden family: Brian and Taryn, with children Amelia, 7, and Ivy, 3. Photo: Tait Schmaal.

WHERE WHYALLA-MADE STEEL HAS BEEN USED

— to build rail lines across the country including the proposed upgrade of 600km of track between Adelaide and Tarcoola

— only 25 per cent of the steel used in Adelaide Oval was made at Whyalla

— Torrens to Torrens road upgrade estimated to require 2600 tonnes of Whyalla steel

— About 60 per cent of steel used in the Adelaide Convention Centre was sourced from Whyalla

— South Rd Superway included about 80 per cent of the steel procured from Arrium

— O-Bahn extension will use reinforcing steel from Whyalla but sheet piles will be sourced from overseas as it is not made in Australia

— New Royal Adelaide Hospital was supplied by SA-based contractors but the State Government did not state whether it had been made at Whyalla.

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