Whyalla is home to the famous cuttlefish migration that takes place every winter: https://divedb.net/sites/whyalla-cuttlefish. Thousands of these cepholapods congregate on the shores to mate and lay eggs, with some crazy mating rituals. A lot of the males like to show off their camouflage by displaying a wave pattern through their camouflage. Mostly it's bigger males that get mates. However: there are little twink cuttlefish that pretend to be female to get close to a mating pair and sneak in!
For that reason I personally wouldn't consider it a "shitty little place", but haven't been there in a work capacity.
Any books you'd recommend besides cradle? I just finished the mistborn trilogy, and while it's not strictly progressive fantasy, I need another thing to scratch that itch