Pub Friday was on us again but before we could enjoy a cold one we had to set up camp. We drove into the Burra Showground and was almost immediately met by Alex the manager and his little dog Elle who is part Dingo. After talking to him for about 15 minutes we sorted out where he wanted us to park and here we have a problem our power lead is to short, no problem says Alex I can loan you one for as long as you are here, crisis averted. We caught up with the blog which always seems to far behind, washing and general tidying the van and then went to The Royal Exchange Hotel for a nice and well deserved beer. The pub was not the exactly lively as we were the only ones there and the guy behind the bar seemed more interested in his phone, so we only stayed for one and left.
Saturday, a little rain and wind but bearable. Burra was founded in 1845 when shepherd Thomas Pickett discovered traces of copper in the rocks. The South Australian Mining Association gained ownership of the property and commenced operations in September 1845.
Burra is a town steeped in history and they have a unique self guided tour of the town and its surrounds it is called the Burra Passport which includes a staggering 46 sites to see. Some sites are buildings on the street such as the town hall, the many churches and some just the original residences. Others you can open with a key you pick up at the tourist info centre. Leave a $50 deposit for the key and your money gets refunded when you return the key. There is eight sites you can enter with this key. John and I spent most of the day doing this tour, well worth it.
We first went to the Burra Mine Site. The area contains extensive remains of the mining and processing operations, it has three Cornish engine houses, the largest collection in Australia. The engine house was reconstructed to house and interpretive display on the Cornish beam engine.
Also at this site is the mine itself starting as a traditional mine with shaft dug out by hand with production starting to decline after 1860 and underground mining ceased in 1867. From 1870 it was worked by the revolutionary open-cut method and this proved to be unprofitable and closed in 1877.
One last mining operation had a go between 1971 and 1981 to a depth of 100 metres and produced 24,000 tonnes of copper metal. The ground water returned to its natural level and is about 50 metres deep. Other things that we could look at were chimney's, steam vents, the powder magazine, the offices of the mines head staff, rusty pipes and steam engine boilers.
Next on our list was the Police Lockup and Stables built in 1847. The cells were used as a temporary gaol until Redruth Gaol was built in 1856. New cells and stables and stable yard were added in 1873. These still stand as well as the original 1847 stables which were converted to hold the horse feed.
Two down only six more to go. Redruth Gaol was erected in 1856 at a cost of 3200 pounds and it was the first gaol in SA erected outside of Adelaide. The gaol provided accommodation for the gaol keeper, the gaoler or turnkey as was the term at the time and 30 prisoners, male and female. The gaol closed in 1894 and the prisoners transferred to Gladstone Gaol. A little known fact the gaol was used extensively during the filming if Breaker Morant. It was renovated and reopened as a Girls Reformatory in 1897 and was supposed to be escape proof but many succeeded, only to be caught again.
Our next stop was Hampton. This was a private township owned by the miners them selves and most of the town now lays in ruins. This has been the result of locals seeing the abandoned brick houses as ideal for further building and simply "borrowing the bricks. the township contains quarries which supplied stone for many Burra buildings It was styled as an English Village and contained up to 30 miners cottages and a Bible Christian Chapel. It was finally abandoned in the 1960s.
Burra Smelting work site is located on Smelts Road and accommodated two smelting houses that were used between 1849 and 1868 with over 1000 workers, mostly Welsh miners, processed the copper which was then transported to the coast and shipped over seas. In 1855 a further 22 Welsh smelter men arrived and the Welsh Village of Llwchwr was laid out nearby.
The Unicorn Brewery was built in 1873 on the site of an earlier brewery and serviced the towns nine hotels.
The history of the brewery is a series of sublime accidents. Just as one mine closed another one opened up. Opening a new brewery seemed like a risky venture with a dramatic drop in the population to 3,000 and more mining families were leaving each week. The new brewery was counting on the expansion of the Northern Railway going through to Cockburn near Broken Hill and with new towns opening up along the rail line each town would have at least one hotel.
The Unicorn Brewery also had the upper hand with the rail line already at Burra it was easier to get equipment and supplies, on top of that with its extensive cellars capable of holding up to 500 barrels. The underground cellars were 5 metres wide, with approximately 600 metres of tunnels for storage. By 1875 Unicorn Brewery was the sole brewery in Burra.
The brewery closed in 1902 due to Government legislation coming in to control the breweries. A Commonwealth Act came into force on the 1st January 1902 stated "No person shall make beer unless licensed to do so". In true Government fashion the regulations were so stringent and the paperwork so complex only the larger breweries could afford to comply.
The Unicorn brewery was later bought by the SA Education Department, the massive malthouse tower was dismantled and the stone used to build the row of three cottages now on site. The offices were converted to a residence, while the cellars and store room remained intact and forgotten. It wasn't until the early 1970s the cellars were rediscovered and open to the public.
Located on Paxton Square is a delightful run of stone cottages, a total of 33 were built between 1849 and 1852. One of the cottages, the Mine Captains Cottage is open to inspection with authentic artifacts dating from the 1860's, and was called Malowen Cottage. The phrase "Malowen Lowarth" means Hollyhock Garden in cornish.
With the mines success in the 1840s miners and their families came in droves but nowhere to live, so they carved out dugouts into the Burra Creek embankments. The 1851 census recorded that about 1800 people lived in the dugouts along the creek and its tributaries. The towns population at the time was 4,400 and of these one-third were children under the age of 14. The unsanitary living conditions contributed to out breaks of Smallpox and Typhoid Fever. During 1851 olone there were 153 deaths in Burra, many of them young children who were living in the dugouts.
Saturday, a little rain and wind but bearable. Burra was founded in 1845 when shepherd Thomas Pickett discovered traces of copper in the rocks. The South Australian Mining Association gained ownership of the property and commenced operations in September 1845.
Burra is a town steeped in history and they have a unique self guided tour of the town and its surrounds it is called the Burra Passport which includes a staggering 46 sites to see. Some sites are buildings on the street such as the town hall, the many churches and some just the original residences. Others you can open with a key you pick up at the tourist info centre. Leave a $50 deposit for the key and your money gets refunded when you return the key. There is eight sites you can enter with this key. John and I spent most of the day doing this tour, well worth it.
We first went to the Burra Mine Site. The area contains extensive remains of the mining and processing operations, it has three Cornish engine houses, the largest collection in Australia. The engine house was reconstructed to house and interpretive display on the Cornish beam engine.
Also at this site is the mine itself starting as a traditional mine with shaft dug out by hand with production starting to decline after 1860 and underground mining ceased in 1867. From 1870 it was worked by the revolutionary open-cut method and this proved to be unprofitable and closed in 1877.
One last mining operation had a go between 1971 and 1981 to a depth of 100 metres and produced 24,000 tonnes of copper metal. The ground water returned to its natural level and is about 50 metres deep. Other things that we could look at were chimney's, steam vents, the powder magazine, the offices of the mines head staff, rusty pipes and steam engine boilers.
Next on our list was the Police Lockup and Stables built in 1847. The cells were used as a temporary gaol until Redruth Gaol was built in 1856. New cells and stables and stable yard were added in 1873. These still stand as well as the original 1847 stables which were converted to hold the horse feed.
Two down only six more to go. Redruth Gaol was erected in 1856 at a cost of 3200 pounds and it was the first gaol in SA erected outside of Adelaide. The gaol provided accommodation for the gaol keeper, the gaoler or turnkey as was the term at the time and 30 prisoners, male and female. The gaol closed in 1894 and the prisoners transferred to Gladstone Gaol. A little known fact the gaol was used extensively during the filming if Breaker Morant. It was renovated and reopened as a Girls Reformatory in 1897 and was supposed to be escape proof but many succeeded, only to be caught again.
Our next stop was Hampton. This was a private township owned by the miners them selves and most of the town now lays in ruins. This has been the result of locals seeing the abandoned brick houses as ideal for further building and simply "borrowing the bricks. the township contains quarries which supplied stone for many Burra buildings It was styled as an English Village and contained up to 30 miners cottages and a Bible Christian Chapel. It was finally abandoned in the 1960s.
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Burra Smelting work site is located on Smelts Road and accommodated two smelting houses that were used between 1849 and 1868 with over 1000 workers, mostly Welsh miners, processed the copper which was then transported to the coast and shipped over seas. In 1855 a further 22 Welsh smelter men arrived and the Welsh Village of Llwchwr was laid out nearby.
The Unicorn Brewery was built in 1873 on the site of an earlier brewery and serviced the towns nine hotels.
The history of the brewery is a series of sublime accidents. Just as one mine closed another one opened up. Opening a new brewery seemed like a risky venture with a dramatic drop in the population to 3,000 and more mining families were leaving each week. The new brewery was counting on the expansion of the Northern Railway going through to Cockburn near Broken Hill and with new towns opening up along the rail line each town would have at least one hotel.
The Unicorn Brewery also had the upper hand with the rail line already at Burra it was easier to get equipment and supplies, on top of that with its extensive cellars capable of holding up to 500 barrels. The underground cellars were 5 metres wide, with approximately 600 metres of tunnels for storage. By 1875 Unicorn Brewery was the sole brewery in Burra.
The brewery closed in 1902 due to Government legislation coming in to control the breweries. A Commonwealth Act came into force on the 1st January 1902 stated "No person shall make beer unless licensed to do so". In true Government fashion the regulations were so stringent and the paperwork so complex only the larger breweries could afford to comply.
The Unicorn brewery was later bought by the SA Education Department, the massive malthouse tower was dismantled and the stone used to build the row of three cottages now on site. The offices were converted to a residence, while the cellars and store room remained intact and forgotten. It wasn't until the early 1970s the cellars were rediscovered and open to the public.
Located on Paxton Square is a delightful run of stone cottages, a total of 33 were built between 1849 and 1852. One of the cottages, the Mine Captains Cottage is open to inspection with authentic artifacts dating from the 1860's, and was called Malowen Cottage. The phrase "Malowen Lowarth" means Hollyhock Garden in cornish.
With the mines success in the 1840s miners and their families came in droves but nowhere to live, so they carved out dugouts into the Burra Creek embankments. The 1851 census recorded that about 1800 people lived in the dugouts along the creek and its tributaries. The towns population at the time was 4,400 and of these one-third were children under the age of 14. The unsanitary living conditions contributed to out breaks of Smallpox and Typhoid Fever. During 1851 olone there were 153 deaths in Burra, many of them young children who were living in the dugouts.
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