We awoke this morning to a cold 14 degrees and felt for our friends and families back in Brisbane who were expected to experience temperatures in the high 30's to low 40'd today. There was a cold SE wind too which made our tour of some of Burra's historic sites, to say the least, uncomfortable.
The Burra Historical Society has developed a self guided heritage trail which includes and describes all the historical places of interest in the town, and there are plenty. For a fee, we were given a "passport key" which allowed us to unlock some of the places on the tour.
Our first site was an old shop front and attached house, the oldest of its kind in Australia, which was built in 1880. The shop front is now a lolly shop, one in which one can buy single sweets. Two children there were having fun spending $5 each and getting such a mix of sweets. The house, now a museum, was filled with paraphernalia consistent with times.
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| 161114 Market Square Museum - building built in 1880 - home and shop of tailor Andrew Wade |
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| 161114 Matchstick frame with no glue - one piece of the paraphernalia |
Next came the old Burra Burra copper mine. The mine was originally an underground mine which, late in its first life, was converted to a small open cut. The mine's first life extended between 1841 and 1877. New owners in 1974 extended the mine to a larger open cut which produced up to 1985. Some of the original mining buildings have been restored and one contains an excellent museum which had a working miniature of the original engine house for the pump. This pump was used to drain the mine of the water coming from the natural aquifer. The water table was still evident at the bottom of the open cut. At peak operation the pump removed 15 million litres of water per day.
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161114 Peacock's Chimney for a winding enginehouse - originally built in 1857
and moved from its original site and rebuilt in 1971 |
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| 161114 L to R Ore Dressing Tower, Morphett's Enginehouse and Morphett's Winding House |
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| 161114 Morphett Engine and Pumphouse - built 1858 and restored in 1986 |
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| 161114 Morphett Windinghouse |
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| 161114 Miners Avit which took condensate from the Morphett Engineroom |
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| 161114 One of the copper ores at Burra Burra Mine - Azurite |
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| 161114 The other copper ore at Burra Burra Mine - Malachite |
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| 161114 The Burra Burra Mine open cut showing current water table |
There were several other buildings on the site including the Powder Magazine and the Mine Stores and Storeman's residence.
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| 161114 Powder Magazine built 1847 and restored in 1976 |
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| 161114 Inside the Powder Magazine - note arched stone roof |
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| 161114 Mines store and storeman's residence built in 1847 |
The tour took us to the now unused Burra Railway Station. It has been restored and will be used as a B&B and for wedding celebrations. The last passenger service was conducted in 1986 and the last freight service for grain, in 1999. A light rail service continued until 2004.
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| 161114 Restored Burra Railway Station |
We also came across a lookout which gave us an excellent view of Burra and its suburb, Burra North.
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| 161114 Burra North |
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| 161114 Burra township |
The tour has been extremely interesting, so much so that we have decided to spend another day here to complete the tour.
The temperature has improved a bit but the cool breeze remains. Shame about Australia's innings in the cricket today.
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