The Advertiser takes a tour of the Whyalla steel works as its future remains up in the air

The Whyalla Visitor Information Centre runs three tours a week at the city’s steel works. The Advertiser bought a ticket to go behind the scenes as its future again dominates the headlines.

If George Miller is looking for a set for a new Mad Max film, the Whyalla Steelworks would be the perfect place.

The aged infrastructure, covered by the area’s red and brown dust, easily mistaken for rust, looks half abandoned.

These steel works opened in 1965 but somehow feel even older than that.

It feels desolate. Car parks are only half full. Workers are hard to spot. There is the occasional movement of heavy machinery and smoke leaks from chimneys.

The view from the Whyalla Steelworks tour. Picture: Dean Martin

There are mounds of dolomite, limestone and quartz and imported coking coal needed for the steel making process.

Buildings and offices once occupied by the shipyard, which closed in 1978, illustrate that nothing lasts forever.

We are on a tour bus that is taking a dozen curious onlookers around the steel works.

It runs three times a week, organised by the Whyalla Visitor Information Centre and tour guide Rod tells the group that it’s “very good to see it’’.

The sudden bright burst of orange is all the more stark when set against the dull greys, blacks and browns of the rest of the Whyalla Steelworks.

But it is that burst of orange that indicates there is, at least, still some flickering life in the steelworks that define the city.

The orange blast is molten steel. Or to be more precise it’s slag, a by-product of the steelmaking process.

It signals the blast furnace, which was cold for much of last year, is working and that the steel works is doing what it should be doing. Making steel.

Later in the tour as we pass some finished steel, Rod again tells the group: “Seeing all that steel out there, it’s absolutely fantastic to see it’’.

The future of the Whyalla Steelworks and the actions of its owner, the British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta is again dominating the mood, conversation and future prospects of the Upper Spencer Gulf city.

There is an almost unconstrained anger from locals directed towards Mr Gupta, who arrived in a blaze of publicity in December 2018 after buying the steel works out of administration, promising a vision for Whyalla that would see it utterly transformed.

Its population would quadruple to 80,000. It would become a world leader in green steel manufacturing and renewable energy as a massive solar farm was built.

Just more than six years later all those dreams have turned to dust and the people of Whyalla have lost all trust in Gupta.

The feeling of disappointment heightened by believing in the bombast and zeal that Mr Gupta brought to town.

Now, most just want him gone. He owes money all over town and most of those creditors don’t believe they are going to see their money again.

The Advertiser spoke to more than 20 contractors.

Debts range from a few thousand, to hundreds of thousands, to three quarters of a million to more than a million dollars.

None of them wanted to speak publicly. Some fear retribution. Some want to keep a low profile in case a new owner comes along and wants to re-employ them.

But all are furious at Gupta. They ask what would happen if they didn’t pay their workers or pay their bills?

They would expect a knock on the door from the ATO or the government.

They are also pleading for some help from state and federal governments.

Some companies have already given up on Gupta and Whyalla and are looking for work elsewhere.

Others say unless the situation is quickly resolved, there won’t be much business left in Whyalla.

It’s not just the contractors who are missing out. There have been job losses at the steel works and the mines.

It means less money flowing into the community, hurting all the other small businesses in Whyalla.

One cafe owner said revenue had fallen around $7000 a week.

One contractor who is owed around $500,000 said the “bottom line is we have to get rid of him and start again’’.

“Most companies won’t make it past June, they will be shutting the gates,’’ the contractor said.

On the tour bus in the steel works, despite the enthusiasm of guide Rod it feels like the fantastical future promised by Mr Gupta is further away than ever.

Apart from that brief burst of orange, it’s an environment with all colour leached out.

The little handout given to the tourists talks up the future.

An electric arc furnace to help make green steel is on the way.

That was a $500m promise made by Mr Gupta which was supposed to be delivered this year. There is no sign of it happening.

Driving around the Whyalla Steel Works the promised future feels further away than ever.

Originally published as The Advertiser takes a tour of the Whyalla steel works as its future remains up in the air