June 23-30, 2023
While here for the week we took up the recommendations from our hosts to do the Cuttlefish Glass Bottom Boat trip near Whyalla and the Wadamata Visitor Centre here in town.
They both turned out to be a great choice, the Cuttlefish observation was outstanding; the only place in the world where you can see Cuttlefish mating and spawning in the shallows of the Spencer Gulf. This venture only started last year with a boat purposely designed to be able to access it from the rocky shoreline without the need for a jetty; the Cuttlefish are right there in the shallow water and the area is shared with the many divers wet-suited up for a water temperature of around 9 degrees!
A little compiled video here with some of our hosts commentary.
History:
The Wadamata Visitor Centre is one of the best we have come across in our travels; the entry fee of around $21 takes you into a walk through experience with multiple video presentations that can easily encompass a couple of hours. It starts with the geological history of the planet and leading to South Australia in particular and then moves on to much of the history of the indigenous people of the area, progresses to white settlement and concludes with a detailed view of mining and in particular Olympic Dam where Copper, Uranium, Gold and Silver are all extracted from the base Ore by various processes.
A few images of parts of the displays:
