Burra

Arrived at Burra on Thursday the 13th April just before lunch. It is a nice little van park on the river/creek an right in town. We set up, had lunch and walked over the bridge to the Information Centre. They have a Heritage Walk/Drive and you can pay for a key which gives you access to numerous buildings and locations. It is normally $25 a head but as a couple of displays were under repair we paid $20 each. So we commenced our Heritage walk. One of the things that impressed me from the start was the age of all these preserved buildings. Most are in the mid 1800s and by Australian standards that is old. The first building we went into was the home of a tailor and the audio of the story of the family was interesting. The tailor, the father of the family died of typhoid whilst the children were still young.

The Town Hall was an impressive building. It was built in 1874.

We then went to the Art Gallery where we saw, ‘art’, I guess.

Then back down into the town and across the bridge to see the cottages of Paxton Square. These were cottages built from 1849 to 1852, on three sides of a square to house miners from the copper mines. There is one on display, ‘Malowen Lowarth’ which our key gave us access to.

That covered most of the sites to walk to in town. The rest would a drive the next day. It was also time to go and shower etc before going out for dinner. So we got cleaned up and still had time for a happy hour before having dinner at the Jumbuck Restaurant which was part of a Motel nearby. Dinner was delicious. Next morning we recommenced the Heritage tour. We drove to the Miners Dugouts. The Cornish miners came out to Australia to work mines here. They had become the world’s leaders in copper mining. They were very short people and many of them dugout homes in the sides of dry creekbeds. Their dugouts/caves were very low in height but that was no problem for the little Cornish people. Unfortunately we could not go in an have a look at the dugouts as there had been a recent collapse so they were closed until they could be made safe. It was a real pity as that was the thing I was looking forward to seeing most.

There are two of the dugout that still have chimney’s protruding out of the ground. In the background of this photo you can vaguely see two more dugouts on the far side.

This is a photo of those two dugouts but they are in shade and not easily seen.

We went on to look at the Peacocks Chimney which had been relocated from the Burra Burra Copper Mine to make way for open cut mining.

We then went up to the Town Lookout and saw the different precincts that make up Burra.

There was informative plaques on the mines and the town.

Then there was the views of the mine.

Our Heritage Pass Key gave us access through the gate to the old mine ruins. So we went on through and looked at the first Ore Dressing Tower, and then the Crushing Engine, Boiler House spot, and the Open Cut Haulage Engine.

This is a view of the Morphett’s Engine House.

We went on around to the Engine House which the operators have turned into a museum.

We then visited the Powder Magazine where all the explosives were kept, a massiveley strong building. Next stop was the Bon Accord Shaft. This shaft failed to produce copper.

This is the old train station.

The main street of Burra.

The Police Lockup and Stables.

Courthouse.

Redruth Gaol.

The Hampton Township was interesting. Some miners chose to buy a block out there and live there rather than pay the mining company to live in town. There was one house that had been kept intact.

They were no doubt clever people but they could not have used a string line or straight edge on this wall.

Burra lived up to its reputation of great history and quaintness. We all enjoyed our visit there.