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| The mine
chimney at Kapunda Mine Site
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Kapunda
Historic copper mining town famous as the
home and base of the 'cattle king', Sir Sidney
Kidman
Kapunda is located 79 km north of Adelaide. It
is a large and prosperous township which has
enjoyed three clear periods of development - the
period of copper mining, the period when it was
the base for Sir Sidney Kidman's huge cattle
operations, and the current period when it has
become an important service centre for the
surrounding rural area.
Still it is the mining connection which looms
over the town in the very physical presence of
Map Kernow (the Son of Cornwall) a huge 8 metre
statue of a miner which greets visitors as they
drive into the town.
The town's name is derived from 'cappie oonda',
an Aboriginal word which applied to a spring
near the present town site.
Before the arrival of the miners the district
was settled by two pastoralists, Captain Charles
H. Bagot and Francis Dutton. Both of these
pastoralists were the founders of what are now
considered 'prominent' South Australian
families. The writer, Geoffrey Dutton, was a
descendant of Francis Dutton.
Copper was first discovered at Kapunda by
Francis Dutton in 1842. He went into partnership
with Captain Bagot who had also noted the green
colour of the rocks in the area. They purchased
80 acres of land for £1 an acre but it took two
years for samples to be sent to Britain, tests
be undertaken, and the results to return to
South Australia. The results were remarkable.
The copper was 22.5 per cent pure which was
probably the richest ever found anywhere in the
world.
The first mining, driven by Bagot, was
literally the workers on his property digging
the copper off the surface with picks and
shovels. In the first year they dug 600 tons of
ore which was worth £7000. By December 1844 the
first Cornish miners had arrived in the area and
underground mining began. By 1846 Francis Dutton
had sold his 25 per cent share in the mine for
£16,000 (a huge sum at the time). This left
Captain Bagot with a 55 per cent controlling
share in the mine.
In the early years the journey of the copper
was extraordinary. The copper-bearing rocks were
transported by bullock dray to Port Adelaide (a
journey which probably took around 6 days) where
it was loaded onto ships and transported to
Swansea in Wales where it was smelted by the
Welsh smelter operators. The loads were two
tons. By 1850 the mine was producing 100 tons of
ore per month.
Over the next few years the wealth of the
Kapunda copper seam was recognised and copper
experts and labourers arrived in South Australia
to mine the seam. These people were specialists.
The Cornish were the expert miners. The Welsh
were the smelters. The Germans, who were already
living in the area, began to cut down the trees
and bushes which were sold to fuel the smelters.
The timber was used as charcoal. Then there were
the Irish who worked as labourers and later
became the main bullock team drivers. The German
women used to walk their farm produce (mainly
fruit and vegetables) to the town in
wheelbarrows and sell it to the miners.
With the arrival of a number of German-made
smelters in 1849 the ships carrying the ore to
Britain began to stop in Newcastle-on-Tyne where
they loaded coal for the smelters. By 1851 there
were more than 2000 people living in Kapunda.
By 1850-51 the mines were reaching below the
water table (it was found at around 80 feet) and
a Buel steam engine was imported and installed
to pump the water out. The mines at the deepest
point were sunk to 480 feet (around 150 metres).
While other mines began to appear Bagot's was
the only one of any importance.
By 1852 the siren call of the Victorian
goldfields found the Kapunda mine almost
deserted. Miners, with considerable expertise,
headed off to try their luck at Bendigo and
Ballarat. This lasted for about three years and
slowly the miners began to return to the area
where their jobs were reliable in the copper
mines. By 1857 production was back to normal.
The rush was shortlived and by 1857 the mine
was back at peak production with 4103 tons of
ore being produced.
By 1861, as the sign in the Bagot Museum
reveals, there were:
43 miners - mostly Cornish
106 pitmen
23 children - mostly Cornish
82 labourers - mainly Irish
13 boys - mainly Irish
36 smelters and furnacemen - mainly Welsh
The mine at this time was employing 302 men
and 36 boys.
The copper was hugely valuable. At the time
it was used for a variety of practical
applications including copper kettles, copper
ladles, candlesticks, bread-making equipment,
copper coins, copper sheeting for ships and also
taps and pipes. It was also used to produce
brass.
The importance of the Kapunda copper mine
declined with the discovery of copper at Burra
where the lode was four times the amount of
Kapunda. In turn the mine at Moonta on the Yorke
Peninsula was found to be four times the size of
the Burra mine.
By 1863 the rich ore lode had been worked
out. The mine continued to operate but it was
now specialising in low grade ore and open cut
mining began. The mine was closed down in 1878
and the equipment sold the following year. It
opened again on a small scale and continued
until 1912. During this time a total of 12,800
tons of copper was mined.
It was towards the end of the life of the
town's mining industry that Sir Sidney Kidman,
one of Australia's richest rural entrepreneurs
and a man who once owned more land than the
entire British Isles. When he died in 1935 he
controlled 68 large properties which covered 64
million acres of Australia. He regularly held
horse sales behind the North Kapunda Hotel
(which still stands in the main street) and at
one famous sale a total of 3,000 horses were
offered in an auction which lasted a week. The
horses were all the property of Kidman.
In recent times Kapunda has prospered as a
successful service town for the surrounding
rural area. The wealth of the town during its
halcyon days has been well preserved. This
allows the visitor to explore the town's history
and to make contact with the wealth (in the
shape of large houses and elegant business
buildings) which characterised the town during
the 1850s and 1860s.
Things to see:
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| Map the Miner
at the entrance to Kapunda
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Map the Miner
The first sight to greet visitors to Kapunda is
that of 'The Big Miner' which looms over the
road into the town. This is a depiction of 'The
Cornish Miner' who was instrumental in the
development of this whole region. The plaque on
the miner reads:
'THE CORNISH MINER. The Kapunda Mine. This
statue is a monument to the profound, role and
contribution of the Cornish miner in the Kapunda
and in due course in other mines in South
Australia. The Kapunda mine, established in
1844, was the first successful metal mine in
Australia and contributed greatly to the
economic development of South Australia. Up to
its closure in 1878 ore to the value of more
than £1 million was produced and up to 340 men
and boys, mainly from Cornwall were employed.
'THE STATUE. The statue was named Map Kernow,
being the Cornish dialect for 'Son of Cornwall'.
It was unveiled on 5 June 1988. The sculptor was
Ben Van Zetten who was commissioned.'
Historic Buildings - A walking tour of the
Town
The first stop off point in Kapunda is the
Kapunda and Light Information Centre at 76 Main
Street. They have an excellent brochure which
covers 34 venues in a walking tour of the town.
It is a comment on the quality of the town's
historic buildings that so many are still
beautifully preserved and worth inspecting.
The walk starts in Hill Street (turn west off
Main Street and start at the large building
which is the Historical Museum) and includes the
following highlights:
Kapunda Museum
This large building was originally the local
Baptist church and was built in 1866 with some
financial assistance from George Fife Angas, one
of South Australia's most important early
citizens. The building ceased to be a church in
1948 and was used as a technical school until
the 1960s. The unusual architectural style of
the building is known as French Romanesque.
Although it is open daily from September to May
and open Sundays and public holidays during
June, July and August 1:00 p.m.to 4:00 p.m.
(contact tel: (08) 8566 2021 or (08) 8566 2603)
it is well worth visiting. It has one of the
finest collections of old record players (from
cylinders through the 78rpm machines) in the
country and also has a particularly interesting
collection of early motorcycles. There are lots
of interesting memorabilia spread through the
building and it is easy to spend a couple of
hours.
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| Display of a
Cornish Miner in Bagots Fortune Museum
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Herald Printing Office - Bagot's Fortune.
Two or three doors along at 5 Hill Street is
Bagot's Fortune, the perfect introduction for
anyone wanting to understand the rich mining
history of the district. Through a series of
excellent displays it depicts the lives of the
early miners. There is a model of a miner
pushing a load of copper ore, a small mine, a
miniature of the main Kapunda mining operation
and an accurate recreation of an Irish workers
cottage at Kapunda in the 1840s. The building,
the old Herald Printing Office, was completed in
1866 to house the operations of the Northern
Star, a local newspaper which had started in
1860. The Kapunda Herald was published in this
building from 1864-1950.
Buildings on the West Side of the Main
Street.
On the corner of Hill and Main streets are the
old Elder Smith offices which date from 1907.
Turn the corner and walk one block and you will
pass the ANZ Bank (formerly the Bank of
Adelaide) which was built of sandstone and
bluestone in 1866 (it was the first branch
office of the Bank of Adelaide) and the Kidman
Buildings (1909) which can be seen better from
the other side of the street where, if you look
up, you can still see 'Kidman Buildings' and
'Bank of NSW' in the upper part of the building.
There are more 'Kidman' buildings over the road
next to the North Kapunda Hotel.
North Kapunda Hotel
On the corner of Crase and Main streets is the
North Kapunda Hotel which was first licensed in
1849. The yard behind the hotel was used for
stock sales from the 1850s onwards but it came
into its own when Sir Sidney Kidman began using
it for his horse sales. There was one famous
auction where a total of 3,000 horses were
offered in an auction which lasted a week. The
horses were all the property of Kidman. The yard
was the centre of Kidman's empire from 1904 to
the 1930s. The rear section of the hotel was
probably built in 1866 when the hotel was
completed. The rest is a series of more recent
modifications.
Around the Town
Here is a very small selection of the best
buildings and destinations around Kapunda. The
best way to see the town is to purchase
'Discovering Historic Kapunda' from the Museum.
It includes the Kapunda Heritage Trail which has
an easy-to-follow drive around the town with a
good map. It is worth taking the effort because
the end result leaves the visitor with a sense
of the historic richness of the town as well as
a great understanding of the early mining
industry.
Gundry's Hill Lookout
Head north along Main street and turn left into
Clare Road and then right into West Terrace.
Follow the road until you come to the signs to
Gundry's Hill Lookout. This offers an excellent
overview of the township and the surrounding
agricultural land. It was here that a Captain
Gundry managed an early copper mine. On the way
up to Gundry's Hill you will pass
Kapunda High School
The average state high school isn't worth
investigation but this high school is built
around 'Eringa' a beautiful house full of
excellent woodwork and characterised by some
superb ironwork. This was the home of Sir Sidney
Kidman. When he left Kapunda in 1921 he
presented the house to the Department of
Education.
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| The Open Cut
at Kapunda Mine |
Mine Lookout and Main Open Cut
The Mine Lookout can be accessed by taking Lucas
Street east from Main Street, turning south into
Whittaker Street which becomes Mine Street and
then turning into Morton Street which leads
towards the Mine Lookout chimney. There is a
fence around the site so you have to walk to the
chimney.
There is no better way to understand the
process of mining which occurred in the district
than to visit the main open cut mine. There is a
walk around the edges of the cut and it is
possible to go down into the valley where the
miners worked and look into the various small
cuttings in the sides of the valley. The area
has a large number of descriptive displays which
point out the features of the mine and provide
fascinating early photographs which show the
views, which are full of buildings and activity.
The mine chimney (which was built in 1852)
stands like a sentinel on the hill above the
operations. It is still possible to see the
sides of the cuttings covered in the distinctive
bright green of copper washed down by the rains.
Below the Mine Lookout is a pleasant and
interesting walk around the edges of the old
Open Cut mine. There are descriptive panels with
old photographs around the edges of the mine and
at various points it is possible to walk down
into the valleys where the ore was mined. You
can still see the green in the rocks.
Continue around Mine Street and into Mugg
Street. A short distance along are the
Mine Square Cottages
This Mine cottage is all that remains of three
rows of six attached stone cottages built by the
Kapunda mine owners on their property to house
mining families. The first two rows were built
by 1845 and the third by 1849. This is a portion
of the third row. It is not available for
inspection and so it can only be viewed from the
fence.
