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Central North accommodation, restaurants, history, things to do

Port Augusta was developed in the 1860s at the head of Spencer Gulf 300 kilometres north of Adelaide. It exported wool from the pastoral north and later copper from the Flinders Ranges and grain from the Quorn-Hawker district.

It now serves as an operational and administrative base for the Australian National railway, and as a centre for generating electric power using Leigh Creek coal. The Pichi Richi Railway is another major draw card for Port Augusta along with the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Gardens.

Within Port Augusta is the City of Port Augusta's Wadlata Outback Centre, providing tourists with an introduction to life in the Australian outback. The centre recorded over 500,000 visitors in 2006. North of town, on the Stuart Highway, is the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden.

Port Pirie was surveyed in 1871 by Charles Hope Harris, although there was a settlement at Solomontown as early as 1848. The town owed its growth to the wheat boom of the 1870s and the development of the Broken Hill mines in the 1880s. A smelter was constructed in 1889 and was the biggest in the world by 1934.

A narrow-gauge railway was built from Broken Hill via Silverton, Cockburn and Crystal Brook, and in 1889 three smelters opened at Port Pirie to treat the silver-lead ores.

Today Broken Hill Associated Smelters Pty Ltd operates one of the world's largest single-unit lead smelters, producing about 10% of the world output of refined lead.

Port Pirie was declared South Australia's first provincial city in 1953, and today it is South Australia's second largest port. It is characterised by a gracious main street and some interesting and unusual historic buildings.

Whyalla was originally called Hummock Hill and was proclaimed a town in 1914 and was a BHP company town until 1945 when the Whyalla Town Commission was formed to carry out the duties of local government. It was proclaimed a city in 1961 when its population reached 14,000.

Key tourist "must do" agenda items include a visit to HMAS Whyalla and the Whyalla Maritime Museum. Whyalla is still the only steelworks in Australia to hold regular public tours.

In the Telecommunications Museum you will find a collection of artifacts covering the history of the Australian telecommunications industry, from the overland telegraph era, morse code and right up to modern satellite communications.

In May 2010 it was announced that Whyalla is set to become Australia's first Solar City following the Federal Government's commitment of $60 million to the Whyalla Solar Oasis project. The concentrating solar thermal project will use the world's largest parabolic solar dishes which are 500 square metres in surface area and capable of generating temperatures in excess of 2,000 degrees.