Whyalla

Whyalla /waɪˈælə/ is a city in South Australia. It was founded as Hummock's Hill, and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fourth most populous city in the Australian state of South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier, and Gawler, and along with Port Pirie and Port Augusta is one of the three towns to make up the "Iron Triangle". It is a seaport located on the east coast of the Eyre Peninsula and is known as the "Steel City" due to its integrated steelworks and shipbuilding heritage. The Whyalla Steelworks is the major employer in the town, and has in February 2025 been put into voluntary administration by the Government of South Australia. The port of Whyalla has been exporting iron ore since 1903.

The city consists of an urban area bounded to the north by the railway to the mining town of Iron Knob, to the east by Spencer Gulf, and to the south by the Lincoln Highway. The urban area consists of the following suburbs laid from east to west extending from a natural hill known as Hummock Hill: Whyalla, Whyalla Playford, Whyalla Norrie, Whyalla Stuart, and Whyalla Jenkins. A port facility, a rail yard serving the railway line to Iron Knob, and an industrial complex are located to the immediate north of Hummock Hill. Whyalla Barson and the Whyalla Conservation Park are located about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north of the city. It is an iron-rich exporting town that supplies China.

The origin of the name Whyalla is disputed. In 1916 it was referred to as the "native" name, having been ascribed during a survey conducted a few years beforehand. During the 1940s, Norman Tindale, the ethnologist at the South Australian Museum believed that the name could have been derived from aboriginal words "Wajala", meaning "west" in a language common to Port Pirie, or "Waiala", meaning "I don't know" in a language more common to Port Augusta. In 1945, BHP advised that the name had been taken from nearby Mount Whyalla, which lies northwest of Whyalla, roughly midway between the town and Iron Knob. Other meanings ascribed to the word Whyalla include "dingo", "by the water", and "a place of water". Another hypothesis is that the name was brought by European settlers and was derived from a place called Whyalla in Durham, England.

Whyalla is part of the Barngarla Aboriginal country.

A mariner named William Morgan Burgoyne purportedly recommended the site for the establishment of a port on False Bay to Harry Morgan of BHP. Burgoyne had spent several weeks there on a trip out from Port Augusta hunting kangaroo with his brother and another man called Alf Rowarth. At that time there was no settlement between Middleback Station and the Point Lowly Lighthouse, and kangaroos were plentiful there.

Burgoyne recalled that the tug Florrie ferried a crew there a week later and pegged out the settlement first known as Hummocky.

Whyalla was founded as "Hummock's Hill", and was known by that name until 1916. It was officially founded as Hummock's Hill in 1901 by the BHP Whyalla Tramway, which transported iron ore from Iron Knob in the Middleback Range to the sea. Its first shipment was transported across Spencer Gulf to Port Pirie, where it was used in lead smelters as a flux. A jetty was built to transfer the ore and the first shipment was sent in 1903. The early settlement consisted of small cottages and tents clustered around the base of the hill. The post office opened in 1901 as Hummock's Hill.

In 1905 the town's first school opened. It was originally called Hummock Hill School but was subsequently renamed to Whyalla Primary School and Whyalla Higher Primary School. The school's current name is Whyalla Town Primary School.