Whyalla locals collateral damage as workers laid off as Sanjeev Gutpa’s GFG Alliance unpaid steelworks bills cripple businesses

One of Whyalla’s best footy players and his entire family have lost their jobs in the past month. They are among many locals who’ve heard a lot of hopeful claims.

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Planted among the salt bush and red sand near Whyalla Steelworks is a faded sign spruiking a promise made more than 10 years ago to turn this land into the state’s largest industrial site.

Local industrial dry cleaner Chrys Presser shrugs as he points toward a long fence built across one section owned by steelworks chief Sanjeev Gupta that was meant to encircle a solar power plant. The site is empty, another promise broken.

Two bedraggled red and green buildings nearby were meant to house Ausmelt’s pig iron demonstration plant and another empty site was targeted for a “big galvanising plant”.

Instead of the years of promised riches from big business, governments and now Mr Gupta, Mr Presser’s Maaric Industrial Services business is facing unpaid bills and lost work cleaning industrial clothing from the steelworks.

Chrys Presser is sick of empty promises made about his home of Whyalla. Mr Presser owns Marric Industrial Services, Whyalla Steelworks is in the background. Picture: Brett Hartwig

Hummock Hill Lookout in Whyalla overlooks the struggling Whyalla Steelworks. Picture: Brett Hartwig

His 34-year-old son Jesse was recently laid off by Golding, the company that runs Mr Gupta’s mine, as it struggles with financial problems linked to the steelworks.

“He survived the first three rounds then got made redundant three weeks ago and there are more to come. Golding hasn’t been getting paid,” Mr Presser claimed.

“I know entire families who have lost their jobs, there’s one particular family, the husband, wife and son all worked at the mine and they all got laid off on the same day about a month ago.

“Their oldest son, he was working for a contractor in the steelworks and the contractor has pulled out, he lost his job and that’s four of them out of work. They are selling up and leaving town, born and bred in Whyalla for generations.”

He tells of the kids playing local sport and how “their Dad is probably one of the best footy players ever seen in this town, he’s in his 40s and still playing A grade”.

Mr Presser is not the only local tired of being told business leaders and politicians have a “big plan” to save Whyalla as they watch more shops empty and an ever-growing roll call of businesses closing.

An air of scepticism pervades this town of 22,000 people as concerns grow over GFG Alliance owing “tens of millions of dollars” to local businesses and contractors, the same in royalties to the state government and another $17m to SA Water.

Down at the foreshore it is a stunning early morning as Peter Barber busily sets up his donut, coffee and ice cream van, a few locals stopping by to chat, the long-term future of Whyalla never far from mind.

Peter Barber runs an ice cream food truck on the foreshore in Whyalla. Picture: Brett Hartwig

Mr Barber is tired of well-heeled business leaders and politicians “over promising and under delivering” to the town where he can drive from one end to the other and see Hummock Hill, the beach, the well-loved landmarks making it “home”.

“What really sours the people in Whyalla are the rumours about the family that owns the steelworks and mine site having bought some expensive real estate and doing renovations in Sydney,” he says.

Galling news for Mr Barber, 69, his wife, Karen, their children and grandchildren, one about to finish an apprenticeship but “is unlikely to get a job in Whyalla”.

“I would put meat on the table before I put a swimming pool in the backyard,” Mr Barber says.

“Here in Whyalla, house prices are dropping, there are a lot of repossessions. There are a lot of good people here and they are going to do it tougher because I don’t see it turning around quickly.”

Further along the foreshore is a smart, glass-fronted restaurant at the Whyalla Foreshore Motor Inn, another business owned by Mr Gupta’s GFG Alliance.

Young “Jake” who works in the restaurant tells how Mr Gupta stays at this waterfront accommodation on his rare visits to Whyalla, but he has not been seen in a while.

Meanwhile, a half dozen ships lie idle in waters surrounding the deep-sea port at Whyalla steelworks that is owned by his company.

Premier Peter Malinauskas revealed this week that contractors have stopped work at the wharf over unpaid bills by GFG Alliance, blocking access for ships servicing Upper Spencer Gulf businesses.

Just nearby the dusty red steelworks is running again after a four-month shutdown before January that led to more job losses and nearby resident Christine Creber says “it’s still not operating as much”.

Christine Creber has lived in this house near the Whyalla Steelworks for the past 30 years. Picture: Brett Hartwig

Ms Creber moved to Whyalla to work as a registered nurse “when it was a bustling spot” in 1987 and the town’s demise makes her feel anxious for its young people.

“There were lots of industries back then and a really good community, all the shops were busy, now I go up in the main street and it feels like a ghost town”.

Back at Maaric Industrial Services there is growing frustration for Chrys Presser.

The former fitter and turner apprentice at the steelworks back when it was owned by BHP is tired of the town of Whyalla being conditioned to accept devastating failures.

He is calling on the state’s leaders to stand up and fight harder for his neighbours, his family and his friends, the South Australians who are collateral damage as big business and politicians wrangle with more broken promises.

“My home is here, everything is here,” he says.

Originally published as Whyalla locals collateral damage as workers laid off as Sanjeev Gutpa’s GFG Alliance unpaid steelworks bills cripple businesses