In earlier years, Whyalla's City planners showed considerable foresight in developing Whyalla, by allowing for future growth. The infrastructure is designed to handle a population up to three times larger than its current capacity.
The City was carefully sectioned in residential, commercial and industrial zones, with a plentiful supply of vacant land available in all areas, for future residential, industrial or commercial developments.
Industrial zones include two estates within Whyalla's urban area, with various industries located next to the Whyalla steelworks and prime sites just outside of the City proper.
A large industrial zone has been set aside adjacent to the Santos plant and state-owned jetty and terminal. The land is linked to the main highway and has a services corridor with pipelines and electricity supplies.
The Cultana Industrial estate at the junction of the highway and the Port Bonython services corridor, and close to the main railway, also provides a strategic location for industry.
BHP has transferred large pockets of previously indentured industrial land over to the City Council. More information on this land can be obtained by contacting Council on (08) 8640 3444.
A plentiful supply of electricity, gas and water means Whyalla has extra capacity for new industrial or commercial ventures.
The city receives its electricity from the coal-powered Flinders Power facility at Port Augusta via two 132,000 volt transmission lines, while natural gas comes direct from the Moomba gas fields in central Australia.
Water is piped to Whyalla from the Murray River along a pipeline with a nominal design capacity of 66,000 megalitres a year. Although Whyalla is a semi-arid area, this pipeline means the city has adequate supplies to meet the needs of residents and industry. The Whyalla Council is also very advanced in researching alternative water sources, such as re-use of effluent and the capture of the storm water, for use in Whyalla's magnificent Parks and gardens.
A high capacity optical fibre cable link also ensures Whyalla has an excellent voice and data transmission service. The city is connected to the intercapital fibre optic network, which passes through Port Augusta. Modern communications services, including video conferencing, mobile coverage and internet access, are all widely available.
Mid to larger regional aircraft and up to small airline jets are able to land at the Whyalla Aerodrome. Some airline jets may be limited by pavement loading because of the softness of the runway and the airport has been used for Boeing 737 diversions from Adelaide in the past. Hangers are available for storage of aircraft's and two runways are available being:
The Airport located seven kilometers from the Foreshore of Whyalla, with a taxi service or a pre-arranged hire car service available and is used primarily for commercial passengers, charter and freight services.
Whyalla has two deep-sea ports, which are deeper than those of nearby Port Augusta and Port Pirie - one owned by OneSteel in the City and the other a State-owned facility at nearby Port Bonython, service industry in Whyalla.
The deep sea port at Whyalla is a custom built port, original owned and operated by BHP (now OneSteel) for its Long Products Division. Facilities for loading and unloading include a stockbridge, mobile equipment and ship's gear. Every effort is made by OneSteel to meet reasonable requests to use the port, to add value to the region and can be managed through the port facilities without disrupting the company's production and shipping schedule. The harbour has five berths capable of handling vessels up to 40,000 tonnes deadweight for bulk discharge, and vessels up to 65,000 tonnes deadweight for the loading of iron ore.
Larger vessels are able to use the State-owned Port Bonython facility, which services the SANTOS fractionation plant. Depths at the end of the 2.4kms long jetty are 20m, allowing it to accomodate fuel tankers up to 110,000 tonnes deadweight and LPG carriers of 75,000 tonnes.
A national highway, state and local bitumised roads service Whyalla, providing fast transport of for goods and passengers. Vehicle movements into Whyalla are around 1,500 per day (with 22% commercial) and leaving Whyalla heading south towards Port Lincoln, approximately 530 vehicle movements per day (22% commercial).
Because of Whyalla's central position, the modern road network enables freight to be transported quickly to all states of Australia and as a result a range a specialized freight businesses exist in the City to service both industrial and commercial businesses. Most companies can transport goods overnight to and from Adelaide.
Whyalla is ideally located for the transport of freight to the eastern and western seaboards of Australia at present and with the building of the Alice Springs to Darwin rail line, will also provide a direct link to the north of Australia and Asian markets.
Whyalla is connected to the national rail corridor by a standard gauge rail line to Port Augusta, giving the city direct access to all of the nations capitals, with the main terminal approximately 2km in length and eight tracks wide.
The Australian Rail Track Corporation, responsible for selling access to train operators, management of the network and infrastructure maintenance, manages this standard gauge track.
Whyalla also has narrow gauge rail, which specifically services OneSteel ore movements. Australian Southern Railroad recently signed a five year renewable agreement with BHP/OneSteel for the operation of the two narrow gauge iron ore lines to Iron Duke and Iron Knob and in-plant shunting operations in Whyalla.
Whyalla City Council operates a community bus transport service within the City, with three main routes. Monday to Friday services start at 7.50am and end around 6.00pm. On Saturday a service operates from 8.20am to 12.20pm and there are no services on Sunday.
Stateliner provide a range of bus services to Adelaide and other regional centres, with connections in Adelaide for Greyhound passengers. Up to six return services is operated daily from the city and duration is usually between 4 - 6 hours to Adelaide.
Des's Cabs provide a taxi service to the City of Whyalla, with a well-maintained fleet of vehicles and friendly customer service. Taxi's provide transport of workers to and from OneSteel and SANTOS.
Hire cars are available through most major Hire Companies, such as Hertz and Avis and can be pre-booked for pickup at the airport or other locations within the city.
