14-05-2025
Nuclear future off the agenda in Port Augusta, as locals turn to renewables and mining
From inside his Port Augusta workshop, Colin Versteeg has built a TikTok following of thousands.
The mechanic posts videos of himself at work, telling viewers how he replaces particular parts or musing about the day-to-day of car repairs at his Augusta Highway shopfront.
While social media had connected him with the world, Mr Versteeg said attracting people to his town had proven more challenging.
Mr Versteeg said travellers must pass through Port Augusta on their way from Adelaide to the Eyre Peninsula, Flinders Ranges and the Northern Territory.
That should make it an ideally-placed hub for the transport and tourism sectors — but it has not panned out that way.
"Everyone's got to go through Port Augusta but, for some reason, no-one stays here, stops here or builds here," he said.
Port Augusta was thrust into the national spotlight last year when it was announced as one of the sites earmarked to host a nuclear reactor under a Coalition election pledge.
The proposal drew mixed responses within the town, with some welcoming a potential economic boost and others raising concerns around safety, the environment, and the suitability of nuclear for the grid.
While the Coalition has not formally abandoned the plan, its resounding defeat at the recent federal election suggested voters did not embrace the idea.
Trevor Paynter and his brothers spent decades working at Port Augusta's coal-fired power station, which was decommissioned in 2016.
The region has spent recent years transitioning to renewables with mixed success, and has attempted to replace the jobs that were lost with the closure.
Like many regional centres, Port Augusta has recorded a slow population decline in recent decades.
Mr Paynter, who supported the nuclear plan, said the region's future success hinged on the employment opportunities on offer.
He said a nuclear reactor would have created jobs during its construction phase, but the plant would not require a large workforce once it was up and running.
Instead, he suggested Port Augusta was well-placed to play a greater role within South Australia's mining industry.
"They've got the infrastructure here for some of the heavy industry," he said.
"There's a lot of mining going on around the place, [they could] tap into some of the heavy construction maintenance."
Greg Bannon felt the region had scarcely settled one nuclear debate — the now-scrapped proposal to build a low-level nuclear waste dump near Kimba — when the Coalition's plan was put forward.
"It was really like a punch in the guts," he said.
Mr Bannon, who lives 40 kilometres from Port Augusta at Quorn and had campaigned against the dump, said Port Augusta has had to reinvent itself in the past and could do so again.
"We also had a very big railway workshop here, it was a huge employer with lots of apprenticeships," he said.
"Railways built everything. So that was a big loss when that was taken away and of course the most recent large employer has been the coal-fired power station."
He said the transition to renewables had been more economically beneficial than some gave it credit for — and maintained that Port Augusta's future was still in energy generation.
"Renewables have provided jobs," he said.
"We've got Sundrop Farm down there, which … grows tomatoes from gulf water that's been desalinated and solar mirrors."
He said another potential energy source was tidal energy, which he felt had not been fully explored.
On the outskirts of Port Augusta sits the Aboriginal community of Davenport — a small population that local Malcolm "Tiger" McKenzie said had the potential to make a big contribution.
The Adnyamathanha, Kuyani and Luritja elder said, to ensure the future prosperity of Port Augusta, a focus must be on training and opportunities for young people.
He said that should happen in collaboration with current or future industry.
"If we all come together as one because there's a lot of mining companies … then we formed a partnership, joint ventures with those mining companies," he said.
"We can create like a training hub, a business hub here in Port Augusta to build those opportunities for Aboriginal people and for all people."
