Burra Burra

We spent the morning navigating our way through the northern sprawl of the Adelaide metro area, passing through the township of Elizabeth, which was once a major car manufacturing center for GM when it was still building the Australian car the Holden.

Early in the afternoon we arrived at the now small town of Burra Burra. The town originated with the discovery of copper in the area in 1845 and the start of mining later that year. The name Burra Burra was given to the mine itself after the nearby creak named Burra. By 1850 Burra Burra was the largest mining operation in Australia and between 1850 and 1860 produced 5% of the worlds copper.

Production at the mine declined after 1860 and underground mining ceased in 1867 and between 1870 and 1877 the mine was worked as an open cut mine. Again between 1971 and 1981 the mine was worked this time as a modern open cut mine.

There is a good self guided tour of the area that takes in some of the (restoreed) old mine buildings, miner residences, old police station and old goal. One of the interesting aspects of the mines history that is brought out by the tour is the central role that Cornish copper miners and Cornish copper mining technology (such as water pumps, steam engines, and ore concentration techniques) played in the operation of the Burra Burra mine.

The mining company refused to sell land within the mining lease as freehold to miners for housing and government for a surveyed township. Hence a number of distinct towns grew up around the Burra Burra mining lease. Today some of those old towns have been absorbed into the modern town of Burra Burra while others are nothing but ruined ghost towns.

One of those surrounding towns was named Llwchwr (a celtic word); working out how to say this word is left as an exercise for the reader.

A little way north of Burra east of the highway on private property is the house in the last picture below. A photo of this house was on the cover of the album Diesel and Dust by the Australian group Midnight Oil.