port Augusta Has Been Steadily Growing And Improving For Years, Before The Recent Mining Boom. The Local Industry Is A Power Plant, And Transport - Which Are Less Prone To Such Cyclical Ups And Downs. Port Augusta Is On My To-buy List. Probably The Best Time To Buy There Would Have Been Before They Put The Darwin Rail Link In, But It Was Going Up Before Then Too.
Whyalla Was In Decline Until Very Recently And Has Gone Up Extremely Sharply In Recent Years. They're Putting A Lid On The Pink Dust And Doing All Sorts Of Funky New Mining Related Stuff, And The Town Has Lots Of Non-mining Related Things Happening, New Department Stores Going Up Etc. Whyalla Is Overpriced Imho And Isn't On My To-buy List.
(my To-buy List Is Just A List Of Up-and-coming Regionals In Sa)
Bit Annoying That They Are Planning To Close Practically Every Regional Hospital In Sa Though, That's Going To Kill A Few Towns That Would Have Otherwise Been Nice To Live In. Can You Imagine Your 'local' Hospital Being Assigned You Suddenly Being 1000km Away? Ours Is Currently 20km Away, But With The New Plan We're Assigned Whyalla, Which Is 230km Away (yes, The Pt Augusta Hospital Is On The Downgrade List Too) And Is Inadequate To Cope With Whyalla's Load, Let Alone 3/4 Of The State's Small Towns As Well. It's Further Away From Us Than Several Adelaide Hospitals. Its Bad Enough We Currently Have To Drive 90km To The Nearest Large Hospital For An Ultrasound, But The Hospital 90km Away Is .. You Guessed It ... On The Downgrade List Too.
I Sincerely Hope This Attempt To Make Every Country Resident Travel Several Hundred Kilometers More Now Petrol Costs The Earth Fails Miserably And Gets The Current Government A Serious Reality Check. Either That Or It'll Just Kill A Whole Lot Of Sick People Who Can't Afford Petrol. All The Doctors Are Up In Arms And The Ambulance And Flying Doctor Service Are Saying There's No Way They Could Cope With The Extra Demand For Travel. So The Re Investment Advice To Check Out The Local Hospital Because Local Hospitals Can Be The Major Employer And Lifeblood Of A Town ... All In Jeopardy At The Moment, For Sa Anyway.