Copper Coast

Mitcham to Wallaroo
Distance Traveled: 131 miles

Our day started out with big-city-driving through Adelaide … the last big city until we hit Perth at the end of our caravan trip … and thank goodness for that. Not that the traffic was any worse than what we experienced in Melbourne. It’s just that we’re ready for some of that solitude everyone says we’ll find once we are on the Eyre Peninsula and beyond.

Our destination today was Wallaroo … on the Copper Coast of the Yorke Peninsula … named for that period in Australia when copper mining was king hereabouts. Ore was discovered near what was to become Wallaroo Mines in Kadina in 1859; and a little further south in Moonta Mines in 1961.

Lonely planet describes Moonta, our first stop, as one of the trio of towns that make up the Copper Triangle … “Moonta (the mine); Wallaroo (the smelter); and Kadina (the service town).” During mining times, it attracted men seeking their fortune … many of them from Cornwall … hence the town’s billing as “Australia’s Little Cornwall.”

The story goes that the first Moonta miner was an “enterprising” wombat. Of course, the wombat wasn’t really a miner, but it’s nice that it was given credit for the first ore find. Turns out that an illiterate alcoholic shepherd named Patrick Ryan noticed copper ore in the earth thrown up from a wombat burrow. And the rest, as they say, is history.

We began our sightseeing at the Moonta Mines Museum, housed in a beautiful stone building that dates to 1878. Back in the day, it was the Moonta Mines Model School with some 1,100 students. Exhibits cover a variety of topics from the Cornish connection to mining displays, from war memorabilia to a school room, and from sports & pastimes to lodges & friendly societies that provided financial assistance to families during periods of need. One final exhibit covered the “Cornish Way of Death,” describing the traditional aspects of Cornish funerals.

Next, we headed off in the caravan to check out the ruins of the mine buildings, including the Hughes Enginehouse with its Cornish-built round tower. The woman at the visitor center explained that the Cornish preferred round towers becausedevils could not hide in the corners. She also mentioned that the tower in Wallaroo was square … because it was built by the Welsh.

It would have been nice had we been able to enter the miner’s house — a mud-and-grass cottage — typical of the mining age. It was described as having compact living arrangements … also typical of that period. Unfortunately, all we could do was wander through the garden because the cottage was locked up today.

We didn’t spend much time outside as it was a-blowin’ a gale. Dust and tiny rock particles were swirling in the air and getting into every nook and cranny. The wind was so strong at times that unless Mui was parked just right, the caravan’s door was pulled out of my grasp when I went to open it. I couldn’t help but think that this must have been one of the things back in the days of mining that added to life’s hardships here.Read more