Springhill Road
Coniston NSW 2500
Enjoy guided tours of the spectacular Port Kembla Steelworks, offering an up close and personal sensory experience of the largest and most dynamic concentration of heavy industry in Australia. After a quick safety briefing at the Visitor Centre, you will be kitted out in safety gear (PPE) before boarding the tour bus to begin a truly sensory ‘steelmaking’ experience. As the tour bus snakes around the Port Kembla Steelworks site, you will spot everything from monster machinery, giant buildings, locomotives and huge stockpiles of raw materials. Time to turn up the heat as you climb the stairs to visit the colossal Basic Oxygen Steelmaking (BOS) plant and the continuous slab caster to get the best vantage point of steel production – a truly unique and sensory experience. In the tour’s final stage, visit the Hot Strip Mill, where steel slabs are reheated and rolled into coils in a noisy, action-packed process.
Following a quick tour introduction at the Visitor Centre, you board the tour bus to begin the tour of the Port of Port Kembla with a short visit to Greenhouse Park. Next, enter the Inner Harbour to see the Port’s key infrastructures – being Port Kembla Coal Terminal (the second largest coal terminal in the state), the Grain Terminals, the state’s largest motor vehicle import hub and shipping berths – a key gateway supporting New South Wales’ motor vehicle, mining, agricultural, manufacturing and construction industries. After visiting the Inner Harbour, travel along the outskirts of the Port Kembla Steelworks and discuss all things Steel whilst travelling toward the Outer Harbour precinct – A short stop at Christy Dr (offering spectacular views of the Inner Harbour berths), it’s now time to discover the additional infrastructure and industries that are in and around the Outer Harbour – Before heading back to the Visitor Centre, and finishing the tour on a beautiful high at Hill 60 with amazing panoramic views of the Illawarra coastline, Lake Illawarra and industrial super centre just explored. Working Port Tours run on the second Saturday of each month.
The Tour takes in some of the many historical sites along the Blue Mile including Wollongong Harbour, the Forts (Flagstaff Hill and Smiths Hill), the Old Courthouse, the Tramway, the Pools and Northbeach. Along the way, the experienced Guides relay the stories of the Foreshore – including its Indigenous history, sea bathing, coal, salt making, trading, and the start of industry in Wollongong.