It proved a little symbolic then that a group of Mercury subscribers would get to undertake the first official return of night steelworks tours of the Port Kembla facility on Thursday in conjunction with Inside Industry.

Illawarra Mercury editor Julian O'Brien said it was part of a whole program of events and exclusive opportunities for digital subscribers over the past year.

"We launched our journey into digital subscriptions almost 12 months ago," Mr O'Brien said.

"Over the course of that time we've hosted a wide range of events for subscribers as our way of saying thank you for continuing so support the Mercury and local news."

As well as the night tour of the Port Kembla steelworks the Mercury was also able to take readers on an exclusive tour recently of the new Molecular Horizons building being built on the UOW campus.

There will be more subscriber events in coming months.

There are many things which stay with you when you are lucky enough to tour inside the Port Kembla steelworks.

There is the distinctive smell. It's not over-powering by any means, but it is distinctive. Once you've got a whiff of that smell, you never forget it. The other is the incredible heat.

As you walk around the inside of the heart of the steelworks you feel the fierce heat radiating out from the red glow of the molten steel as it is produced.

You can feel the heat coming through your protective gloves as you place your hand on handrails all around the factory.

Handrails that both keep you upright and in the places you are meant to be, away from harm.

If you are ever lucky enough to be near the blast furnace when it doing its thing, you will never forget it.

The power and violence of the steel-making process is something to behold.

On Thursday, we gave some lucky readers a chance to see inside what we often drive past on a daily basis and don't think about.

Some of our reporters and photographers are old hands at visiting the steelworks.

This editor has done it on several occasions now and each time it is difficult to tear yourself away from the place. It is fascinating.

It has been four years the Illawarra Mercury launched our Save Our Steelworks campaign.

It was a campaign designed at reminding people just what a vital part the steelworks remains to our economy and to support the workers who had to make some incredible tough sacrifices to ensure the viability of the operations.

What was surprising at the time was there were people who were not supportive of the campaign.

They believe the steelworks to be "old Wollongong" and not reflective of the diversity and more robust nature of our local make-up in the Illawarra today.

All of which is true of course, but the steelworks helped forged this region and you don't replace the type of jobs that go with this type of industry easily.

If you can and you haven't before, take the opportunity to go on an Inside Industry tour of the steelworks. You will never forget it.