Whyalla: The steel town that saved itself | Australian Story
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- The once booming steel town of Whyalla in South Australia, was on the verge of becoming a ghost town until all of is steel workers took the drastic and brave step of accepting a 10 per cent pay cut to make the lifeblood of their town attractive to a new buyer. They then caught the eye of a innovative British billionaire Sunjeev Gupta.
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As a resident of Whyalla for three and a half years now (Originally from Melbourne) it's nice to see the confidence return within the town. It certainly didn't save itself, Mr Gupta did that, as he has in many other plants around the world, Motherwell etc. I've picked up work and contracts nobody wanted and Whyalla has been very good to me.
I lived in this tough but fun town for 10 years (82-91) I took my English wife there to show her where I'd grown up in December 2014 and I got a feeling that the uncertainty that had plagued the town for many years regarding the steelworks had taken its toll on the people. I live in Brisbane now and anytime Whyalla is mentioned on tv i would have this sick feeling of "well this is it... the death roll" I want this town to prosper SO BADLY. It really deserves to have its time in the sun
Whyalla is just a cash cow for the South Australian police.they won't stop the ice dealers but they sit there and pick off the customers and fine them . So much devastation is being caused at the moment because the police won't actually do anything
@@jamief.8489 yeah, if there was ever a town that would suffer a drug epidemic it would be Whyalla
I'm from whyalla. And my family back in the 60s worked at whyalla steel when it was BHP.
beauty and the bleak
Nice, are you planning to head back there?
Speaking of Sanjeev Gupta turning Whyalla into Dubai, his Liberty House Group has one of it's Global Hub's at Dubai.
He's caught the world's attention with his huge investment's in unique renewable energy project's & solutions to support the city in SA.
I wonder if he's trying to change it into Dubai?
It really doesn't seem like it's the same place when I hear The people had jobs here and that families were living happily in this town all in the past and now with the drugs
@@willsastonmartindb9975 they don't like drugs over there so I'm assuming not
i was born and raised in whyalla but for some god forsaken reason my mother decided we should move to port augusta. she'll come in on the weekend asking if we wanna go see the family and i look at her as if she had grown a second head.
I am shocked on a daily basis with this town the inbreeding the drugs the insanity of the place is hard to get used to and the fact that people here do not understand humour they don't know how to laugh at a joke
This is a true Australian hero. Good on you Sanjeev!
...British hero?
WTF. He was born in India. He is a true blue Indian man.
as an engineer who has worked at the steelworks , and was born in whyalla- this video is absolute cringe. i interviewed for a role there again in around 2012 and was absolutely floored at the state of the steelworks. after the tour of the site, i had decided i didnt want to work there again. id be very surprised if the site has been cleaned up and made a future prospect, as opposed to being saved. the last time i was there, the place was not inclusive at all, it was clique and had a load of small town issues like tradie monopoly and overpriced goods and services. couple that with steelworks nepitism and an inability to be flexible by relying on a single business for its survival, the town has been surpassed by time, in my opinion. And its not alone. The town an hour away also relied heavily on one industry, but not as much as whyalla did/does, as it was geographically positioned better. Mr. Gupta is showing that businesses dont need to chase huge returns, and dont need to have increasing targets each year to be successful. When you make a small amount on massive throughput, you make big $. If only companies like the banks, coles and woolies would do the same. they wont and they havent. its going to end up raping this country. it already is. As Dick Smith has been saying for 20 years now, its unsustainable. The difference is that Mr.Gupta is a single person answerable to himself. The others are boards who are owned by creditors.
Tim as a current contractor at Liberty Onesteel, I can confirm everything you've said. It doesn't appear as though there is a huge culture shift since the takeover, but I'm sure that's coming and will be a shock for those directly involved. I'm still mostly considered an outsider after 3.5 years and can't get to the positions I'm qualified for, which irritates me. However I do enjoy living here, it's a fairly carefree town and I'll stick it out for another 3 years until we've hit our savings target ( easy place to make a lot of money, with minimal financial distractions, if you're not simple).
Looks like you were right on the money mate
We definitely need a big number 4 supermarket we have Coles/Woollies/Aldi but we need another player to really raise competition and lower prices. Supermarket pricing is absolute price gouging!! And the consumer suffers!!
Oh God I must be getting old. Our family moved to Whyalla because, as a builder, my father helped build BHP. I always thought so much more could be done with that city. It didn't have much in the way of entertainment... The drive-in, pool, skating rink, pony club and mini gold on the foreshore was about it.
Catherina
It seems like Sanjeev Gupta is trying to turn it into a Dubai of sort's, he has one of his Global Hub's at Dubai.
But the kayaking with Dolphins has always been the town's main attraction & is taking off.
Also scuba diving with the unique giant Cuttlefish there that boast the most colour transformations of any known creature to exist on Earth was the other attraction, they also attract Marine biologist's from all over.
I think they should invest in a centre for Marine biology to take advantage of the situation.
It wouldn't surprise me if alot more attraction's appear now.
I even think the government wants to revive the Ship building trade there & include Submarine construction, which will be great for exports.
The one thing that I hope they take into account with these new attractions is to be competitive on the world scene too.
They have alot of unique wildlife & am hoping they might include a Zoo & a few Theme Park's, water based one's as that area is hot all the time.
@@willsastonmartindb9975 In my mind, it was the foreshore I was thinking could be better developed and geared towards tourism because of it's uniqueness and long hot Summers. I have heard about the dolphins there but they arrived a long time after I left. I did have one close encounter with them. I was swimming with my sister at high tide late at night...and two fins appeared very VERY close to us... This was not long after Jaws came out and that movie damaged me lol. Inasmuch as I knew sharks don't swim like that, 'what if' was scarred into my mind. Always loved anything to do with the beach, in, on, under or next to... still do. Fishing was so easy, I guess that's changed like everywhere else now but a couple of my brothers would bring back snapper that was so big, they would take it to one of my dad's sheds that has a table saw to cut into steaks so it could be frozen...too big to eat in the one meal... and we were a large family. I would walk out to the sandbar with my father at low tide armed with bbq tongs and a large hessian bag and pull out blue swimmer crabs at the seaweed line. It literally took longer to walk to the sandbar than it did to fill the potato sack
Catherina
The GFG Alliance account displays all the upgrades for the foreshore including new Hotel's, walkway's, a world-class Jetty & Shopping centre's.
But the massive $2 billion+ boost to renewable energy project's means that it will probably have the cheapest running cost's in Australia.
I'm looking forward to the new Solar farm that is being built to grow vegetables & fruit's, just with the $145 million Horticulture project.
Should ensure that Whyalla get's the healthiest & freshest organic Vegetables & fruit's😋.
Sounds like you had a nice time there, I enjoyed playing with the Dolphins there too, my closest friend's😅.
I even saw some unique coloured one's, a Pink & White one, even one that was both pink & white.
I think they were Albino's.
I prefer it when they are around because they saved me a few times from marine predators.
Hope they expand on the Dolphin Sanctuary too.
Are you living there now, man I'm jealous; wish I was there too.
I've only been here a short time but it's incredibly sad the place is just full of drug addicts now that's it . The police won't do anything they're making too much money out of it
@@catherina2611 you cannot operate an entertainment business in Whyalla because once people have spent all their money on drugs cigarettes and with what's left feed their 15 children there's no money left.
I moved to Whyalla for 6 months last year and I loved it so much I’m moving back permanently tomorrow. It would be shocking if the whole town shut down overnight. Onesteel is the heart and soul of Whyalla and something needs to happen so we don’t lose it
I hope that once things get back on track that their wage gets reinstated back to their original amount. Good on ya Sanjeev for taking it on though.
Werebilby,,,,thats a good sentiment,,,,,but as with most workforces of that scale(6000) their power to actually get wages much higher than award is very easy,,,, so the question would be - what is the hourly rate now vs before . I think you will find it will be still much higher than any other foundry (small steelworks) than is paid anywhere else in Australia.
This guy is a hero, people from the town were hopeless. They have tried harder but wasn’t enough. We have seen many company keep closing down and the government can’t help them, but only wanting High taxes... and no one comes up with the solution or strategy. Holden closure I still got a wound in my soul
This was all to bad management and short term gain ideals and and a board with a total lack of foresight!
He is humble person , most aussies when they start making a few quid they get big headed , his grounded , a successful persons trait, his a billionaire and yet he opened his home to accomodate his fellow workers at his place , he said it right my challenges dont end, ill make it work.and move on
My uncle worked in the Whyalla steel plant sometime during the late 70's or early 80's. He told me about the conditions and lifestyle there during that time. I lived in Adelaide for two years and never visited Whyalla, only seeing it in the distance across from Port Pirie.
I recently moved to Whyalla and I tell people from Adelaide that the locals support the steel industry one syringe at a time lol
i grew up there until i had to move to Victoria in 2019
and my dad used to work there to
and it feels weird seeing a video of my childhood home
I heard about this because of Australian metal bands like Destroyer666,Vomitor,Gospel Of The Horns,Razor Of Occam
You might want to fix that little glitch at the 10:35 mark. You can see the unblurred phone details.
+61 3 8623 3366
+61 417 312 835
Its the result of bad editing. They needed to make the blur last longer, or they make the transition quicker.
Why would anyone want to ring them though?
No, it didn't save itself. The local economy is still crap. Gupta has major financial problems and the steelworks will not expand. There is still major unemployment.
I so love to hear that pride in a person.
I lived there for 3 years in the 90's......
We're half the population on ice back then they certainly are now ?
I used to work in Whyalla BOS plant and left after 3years for another job. Overseas steel from China, India and Korea was slowly coming into Australia at reduced price. Hope Sanjeev can save the steelworks and turn it around. But as I said if you make steel your market must be nearby. At the moment lots of overseas steel coming in cheaply. So the whyalla operation must be lean and efficient.
Having family that worked in BHP back in the town it was all built on migration - thank goodness community was alive & well in those days - ppl had jobs, it was living in the 70s, you could leave your house without looking the doors!! Ppl had a genuine desire to build community.... The good old days!!!
Within the first 2 years I was robbed home invaded and had my door kicked in three times and at least four times l've had indigenous people asking for syringes at my door late at night
"In the 70s", ah, well there's your culprit. We've had 50 years worth of new people since then so of course things have changed.
And jobs existed back then, sure, but so did unecessary wars killing a lot of our youth.
Good to see a whole community rallying behind a person and a person (with profits in mind) still have the courage to pick up a down plant. I honestly feel the decision by employees to take a paycut has put confidence in the investor. ALL ARE HEROS HERE. WAY TO GO MATES - ALL THE VERY VERY VERY TO THE POWER OF INFINITY BEST
Be interesting to know how much of cut adminstration got to their pay while workers copped 10%
@Robert Dadge Seems like a pretty important bit of info that was glossed over. What an absolute fuckwit that administrator was for saying how much he loved the town and how everyone had to make sacrifices. Once again it's always the workers that bare the brunt of these decisions.
You see stuff like this is the reason why I don't want to buy a house and be tied down to one place , If I get made redundant or there`s better job opportunities Somewhere else . I could move in a heartbeat and take advantage of the situation .
I visited Whyalla around a year ago... I would say it is the end of the earth
I live in Whyalla
Not much genetic diversity in this place hey
Good to get all this background
this story make no sense to me ,why did the Idian guy know what to do and Arium did not ,and why didn't the town buy the steel works at pennies to the dollar after letting it run down ?
The difference is mr Gupta has a long term vision the arrium board had none only short term gain . Mr Gupta said it they have all the minerals at there door step and they have done nothing with them (except export them )where as he has a vision for green steel !
I live in the main city of Croatia and would like to move and live here , be a part of the community and do commercial and recreational diving services in the future.
Best you speak to the wealthy Croatian
fisherman in port Lincoln
I came to Whyalla to set up a business and went broke . KFC and ice dealers are the only people making money in this town
i think you better stay right where you are, the croc's here dont like the smell of your odour
good onem👏👏👏👍
I am going to visit you tomorrow
@@batheandrelaxinmyshit6344 piss of u troll, get a life & stop commenting wierd shit on youtube u hobo
Steel works are big as here my dad being the saftey boss he hears about all the stuff that’s happened there’s been a lot of times it’s almost fallen
been on the Housing Trust waiting list for 20 years got a place in Whyalla I've been here for four years and I have to leave because of the drug addict neighbours who keeps robbing me. and the housing trust run by Katharine who forges documents couldn't care less
So thats why you cant get a job at onesteel any job that douse pop up goes to a family member
The rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Surely he can give back their 10% pay cut since he's a billionaire, I mean thats just pocket change.
So many ghost towns...oil and gas gets pumped wherever....but water ?....it's left to gush to the sea.
Will the workers get a 10% pay rise as soon as the steelworks is functioning well again?
No. Gupta is a billionaire. He will want the profits for himself.
08/09/1982 Australian Womens Weekly ....... "Meanwhile on the trail of Aileen Ekblom (Whyalla's Town Mayor).... She's keeping tabs on industrial and cultural pursuits in the region while she cooks for her cats, friends and husband who's on leave from BHP" And you wonder Whyalla 's future was to be very dark indeed when you had clowns like this and many others running the town.
No automation..??
How does Mr Gupta make money in steel mills/towns where dozens oj others have failed, This question has been raised in the UK over the last 10 years eg in this film John Collingridge Sunday Times, There seems to be no satisfactory answer, I have NO agenda/theory/vested interest, Can someone recommend well researched articles/books on this puzzle, Please NO theories or guesses, I hope Whyalla thrives for evermore
Michael Boylan
Not sure tbh, Sanjeev Gupta seems like a brilliant yet humble businessman who's business is growing rapidly in revenue by billions every year.
He seems to have started by selling simple thing's like sugar, but has expanded his Empire to massive billion dollar Steel production business buyout's.
He seems to have an incredible value not seen before for Whyalla SA with his plans for the transformation of the town.
Whyalla SA does hold 70% of Australia's steel production.
He's started these billion dollar project's just a few days ago & should be a very different town by 2021.
27:22 Even he doesn't know if it's going to be worth the investment, but he does claim to at least be profitable.
No boom still the same
Yes Whyalla doesn't change still full of filthy junkies
steel
It's another Tokoroa . . .
It’s a bold move considering the decline of steel making in Western nations. Here’s hoping that Donald Trump’s attempt to rejuvenate US steel manufacturing by imposing import tariffs doesn’t trigger a trade war that will threaten Sanjeev Gupta’s vision for Whyalla. So many regional Australian towns face economic uncertainty and it would be heartening to witness a success.
How about the government CREATING money to let the workers have a part of the company ? After all they bring considerable sacrifices AND have a strategic interest to hold the company there.
People from Whyalla should not be allowed to leave Whyalla.
Alot of people leave, alot move back. Only people that live here know how good it is. Best if you stayed away.
let' build a wall around your town, cut you off the life support of Australia... I wonder how long your "quaint" little town will survive, 3 hours? 3 days? it surely won't last longer than a week
I say the same thing about sydney build a wall around !!
Thanks to the indian dude
@Suzukisan well to make money. whats wrong? He's not running a charity just because the locals are too stupid to run the business.
shututp
This, 'documentary', is just propaganda !!!
A great disappointment ABC!!!.