Loading from the jetty is in progress. This jetty had been built in 1901, but was extended in 1915 when BHP decided to expand its operations. It was lengthened and conveyor belts were fitted for carrying the ore directly to the ships. The first shipment of 2800 tons of iron ore for Newcastle was loaded in three and a half hours on 8 January 1915.

Whyalla came into being in 1901 when Broken Hill Proprietary Ltd decided to use the iron ore deposits in the nearby Middleback Ranges as flux for its smelters across Spencer Gulf in Port Pirie. After initially transporting the ore overland through Port Augusta, in 1900 BHP approached the South Australian government for a railway and jetty facilities. The Act to enable this was passed in December 1900 and the railway and jetty were operating 8 months later. Whyalla was officially proclaimed a town in 1914 and was built around the export of the iron ore to Port Pirie, later also to Newcastle. Late BHP would build smelters at Whyalla and shipbuilding yards.

Scheiffers, Sue A ribbon of steel; edited by Don Winton; photography by Willis Harrison Whyalla: Whyalla Jubilee 150 Committee, 1985