Whyalla

An hour's drive south of Port Augusta is Whyalla − the third-biggest city in SA − with a deep-water port sustaining steel mills, oil and gas refineries and a morass of chugging chimneys, port facilities and industrial estates. Ugly, yes, but the old town has some good pubs, well-preserved domestic architecture and migrating giant Australian cuttlefish in the waters offshore (May to August).