We have spent today exploring the ‘Copper Triangle made up of the towns of Wallaroo, Kadina and Moonta. We started in Wallaroo with a photo of the old town hall while we waited for Cathy and Steve to have their tyre fixed. Punctured tyres are a bit of a theme? On our last joint road trip to NSW it was our car that had a slow leak and needed a repair in Coffs Harbour.
With both vehicles good to go we made our way to Kadina looking for some more water tower art. We were approaching the Aldi and I joked to Bernie about whether we should pop in to see if there were any good specials left from Wednesday. Next thing I know he is turning into the Aldi car park and Im saying to him ‘I was only joking!! Ha, ha, it turns out Kadinas water tower is in the Aldi car park. Kadinas tower, painted in 2018 by Melbourne street artist Resio, features a young maypole girl holding copper and wheat, signifying the Cornish history of the area. The other side features a steam engine and poppies.
mining town of Moonta planning to ride the Moonta Mines Tourist Railway believing that it operates on Fridays. Unfortunately not! At present the railway only operates on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays. OK, with not many kilometres to travel to our Saturday we might be able to do the first tour at 10.30am tomorrow before we head north.
That just left us with the problem of what to do in Moonta this morning as the Moonta Mines Museum doesnt open until 1.00pm! With several brochures in hand we made our way into the town centre and parked the vehicles near Queen Square. Referring to our Moonta Historical Walking Tour map we strolled around town past all of its beautiful old buildings. We started with the impressive Town Hall, made our way past old banks, shops and hotels before finishing up with the Salvation Army Hall, the Bible Christian Church and the Methodist Church.
That took us to lunchtime so we headed to a caf looking for Cornish pasties. The Copper Triangle has very Cornish roots with many Cornish miners emigrating to Australia after the mining industry in Cornwall, England started to decline. The district was even called ‘Australias
Little Cornwall in its early days. There are many shops selling Cornish pasties, the one we chose claiming to be the only one making the original Cornish pasty featuring savoury filling in two thirds and apple filling in one third. Main course and dessert all in one?! Its a bit strange having your pasty delivered to your table with sides of sauce and whipped cream!
With the time now close to 1.00pm we headed towards the Moonta Mines Museum along the route of the Moonta Heritage Trail. We stopped at the Miners Cottage and Garden and the site of the old Hughes Mine. There is a very detailed circuit of interpretative boards at the mine site explaining how the mine and associated buildings looked and operated between the 1860s and 1923. During this period the Moonta Mines produced about 170,000 tonnes of copper and, along with the Wallaroo Mine, were the longest worked in South Australias mining history.
Our next stop was the Moonta Mines Museum located in the former Moonta Mines Model School. The building dates to 1878 and houses themed displays on the Cornish miners lifestyles, mining, lodges and friendly societies, sports and recreation and the
usual costumes, china, silverware, photographs and memorabilia of Moontas boom era. The museum is operated by the National Trust so we were admitted for free. It makes a change to be visiting NT properties in Australia. We usually derive the most benefit from our membership when we take advantage of reciprocal visiting rights in the UK.
With the weather much warmer today, we finished the day with a swim at the beach to the south of the Port Hughes Jetty. The tide was a good way in which meant that we didnt have to hike too far out to get our feet wet! When the tide is out here it is waaaaaaay out, so our timing was good.
