Copper Mining at Kapunda

I spent two hours early this morning with a very frightened dog.    A thunderstorm, but very little rain.   It started in the distance at 1.30 a.m. and faded in the opposite direction at 3.30 a.m.   Most unexpected.   Piper was unimpressed, and would not be comforted, and I must say I was not a happy bunny either.

However, the day improved after that, and we ended up with a cool but sunny day.   Perfect for the walk around the mine, 1 1/2 km of part brick and part bitumen path.    

Kapunda was a copper mining town, together with Burra and Moonta on the York Peninsula.  Kapunda was the first place to start copper mining, followed by Burra, and the two mines contributed to the colony's recovery from economic crises in the early 1840s.

Mining began here in 1844 and continued until 1879 when world copper prices fell.   However, by 1863 the main lode at Kapunda had been mined out,  Initially 100 tons of ore was produced each month.   The workforce was made up of the Irish who were the labourers, the Welsh who were the smelter specialists and the Cornish, who were the miners.  The people in charge were from England, and they controlled the mine and the town.

Unlike mines in Britain, only boys and men were allowed to take part in the mining of copper.    Boys aged 8 and older where used to break up the pieces of lode with hammers.    This was hard work.   The boys were often poorly dressed and poorly fed, and worked in areas that were very cold in winter and very hot in the summer.    They also had to attend school after they finished work.    Many of them died before they reached 12 years of age.

In fact life was very hard for most people, with infectious diseases causing many deaths.

The chimney still remains upright considering how old it is.

A model of a horse driven whim used to pull the copper ore to the surface.

Piper enjoying the walk, especially as many dogs had walked this area before her, so there were lots of doggy smells around.

A view over the open cut mines, now fenced off due to the many deep mining shafts.

The metal frame, from one of the processing areas.

The blue water at the bottom of an open cut mine shows that there is still copper there.

It is difficult in the photograph to see the areas where copper shows up against the white chalk.

A walk into one of the open cut mines.   The blue copper can be see in the rock on the right side of the photograph.

The big miner.    The very large statue that stands on the edge of the main road into Kapunda.  

                                         

This afternoon was definitely nap time, after a disturbed sleep last night and a walk around the mine.