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Wallaroo Mines
Title : Wallaroo Mines Wallaroo Mines
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Source : B 9210
Date of creation : 1880
Format : Photograph
Contributor : State Library of South Australia
Catalogue record
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Description :

View of Wallaroo Mines.


This is a good illustration of the placement of mining buildings and equipment at the Wallaroo copper mining site.

Located in the Yorke Peninsula, Wallaroo is found in the area referred to as 'The Copper Triangle', along with the towns of Kadina and Moonta. In 1859 a shepherd named James Boor, who was employed by station owner Captain Walter Watson Hughes, discovered copper in the area now known as the Wallaroo Mines. Hughes took out a mining lease, and by 1861 Wallaroo contained the largest copper smelters outside of Wales, processing copper ore from the mines in the region.

The mines employed hundreds of Cornish immigrants and their heritage is celebrated in the biennial Kernewek Lowender festival. The price of copper dropped considerably in the years after World War One and the Copper Triangle' mines subsequently closed in the early 1920s.

Subjects
Coverage year : 1880
Period : 1852-1883
Place : Wallaroo
Region : Yorke Peninsula
Further reading :

Austin, John Baptist The mines of South Australia; including also an account of the smelting works in that colony, together with a brief description of the country and incidents of travel in the bush Adelaide: C Platts, ES Wigg, G Dehane, J Howell, WC Rigby, G Mullett, 1863

Brown, Henry The copper industry of South Australia: an economic study Adelaide: H Brown, 1960

Drew, GJ Discovering historic Moonta, South Australia, [Adelaide]: Dept. of Mines and Energy and the District Council of Northern Yorke Peninsula, 1991

Drexel, JF Mining in South Australia: a pictorial history Adelaide: South Australian Dept. of Mines & Energy, 1982

Dutton, Francis Stacker South Australia and its mines, with an historical sketch of the colony, under its several administrations, to the period of Captain Grey's departure. Hampstead Gardens, Austaprint, 1978

Fyfe, Dorothy M Maritime history of Wallaroo: an outline, 1802-1978 Wallaroo, S.A.: D.M Fyfe, 1979

Faull, Jim Cornish heritage: a miner's story Highbury, JF Faull, 1980.

Gee, Lionel Record of the mines of South Australia Adelaide: Public Library of South Australia for the South Australian Department of Mines, 1966

Hosking, Rex Notes on early mining in South Australia Burnside, Burnside Primary School, 1986

Johnson, JE Minerals of South Australia Adelaide, South Australian Museum, 1978

Johns, RK Cornish mining heritage Adelaide: Dept. of Mines & Energy, South Australia, 1986

Selby, Jonathon South Australia's mining heritage Adelaide: Department of Mines and Energy, 1987

The Wallaroo and Moonta mines: their history, nature and methods, together with an account of the concentrating and smelting operations. Wallaroo, Wallaroo and Moonta Mining and Smelting Company?, 1914

The Wallaroo and Moonta mines: their history, nature and methods, together with an account of the concentrating and smelting operations. Adelaide: Gillingham Printers

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