whyalla/leigh creek

[phil&Sue]

hi, just wandered has anyone been up to whyalla/leigh creek at all?

 

thanks

 

[Diane]

Do you mean to live there, or for a holiday?

[Guest Guest75]

Both are way out from anywhere else!

Leigh Creek is a mining town.

Whyalla is industrial with a big plant (smelting I think) everywhere is covered in fine red dust.

 

Dunno about living there:dull:

[phil&Sue]

Do you mean to live there, or for a holiday?

 

 

To live there, possibly 1year or so due to work,

[Guest kangomik]

Leigh creek is a long way out. Whyalla is a stop off place from the pleasure fishers to the road trains passing through.

Never been, but my guys don't stay up there to much. most try to travel there and back in the day!

[Anne B]

Whyalla is reasonably large (by SA standards) industrial town on the coast, and yes there was a red dust on everything when I was there, albeit a few years back. There is a beach but it doesn't entice you to sit on it (although they do have a surf club). There are old buildings in the town centre and I remember a lot of 60s housing on the outskirts - I think a lot of '10 pound poms' settled there in the 60s to work in the steelworks. My husband spent some time there with work, I remember staying up there one weekend, the town centre was pretty dead but it may have picked up by now. It's not too far from Port Augusta (which IMO is much nicer), but apart from that it's a long way from anywhere.

 

Leigh Creek is much smaller than Whyalla, it is in the northern Flinders ranges and even further from anywhere than Whyalla, but in the middle of some beautiful countryside. Obviously the town is only there to support the huge coal mine, but it must be a little way from the mine as I don't remember seeing it! The buildings are all fairly new, the houses all seemed pretty modern and in pleasantly landscaped cul-de-sacs - you wouldn't think you were out in the middle of nowhere! There were a few shops there but not many, for anything major you would have to go to Port Augusta. I only went there when I was at Arkaroola which is 130 Km further down the track and Leigh Creek represented civilisation - we had to drive there to visit the shops or get the newspaper and to hire videos from the video shop! A totally different world from Adelaide but quite an experience.