Day 225 - More around historical Burra

It was a beautiful day today, cool but sunny, a great opportunity to complete our historical coverage of Burra.  There are so many places of interest that, instead of writing a story of today's happenings, we have provided information about the places we saw within the photograph captions.  Enjoy the experience.  We certainly did. We would however like to apologise in advance for the number of photographs.

171114 Bon Accord Hotel - named after the nearby Bon Accord copper mine.
Erected by Sara and Dunstan to service the railway which arrived in 1870

171114 Former Drew and Crews Bulk Store. Erected in 1873.  It was
adjacent to saleyards which frequently saw sales of over 20,000
sheep at a time

   171114 Former office of Sara and Dunstan who were business partners 

       in 1876. They traded as builders and timber and iron merchants. 

        They also built many of Burra's fine public and private buildings 

171114 Former blacksmith's shop, built in 1881.  It has since been used
as a storeroom, insurance offices, a betting shop, a motor sales garage,
a coppersmith, craft shop and flea market.  It is now privately owned

 

171114 A stately home "Wandillah" built in 1918.  It had its own electricity
    generator and supplied electricity to light  the main street of Burra
North, until general electricity supply commenced in 1924

171114 Sara's Corner.  Originally Tiver's Corner and built by James Tiver as
   a general store and post office.  After Emma Tiver married J G Sara the
name changed to Sara's Corner

171114 Redruth Bridge, erected in 1879 and "launched" by Captain
Killicoat, who broke a bottle of wine over it.  It is now a footbridge.

171114 Former Redruth Court House designed by Colonial
Architect E A Hamilton and built in 1857

 

171114 The "Necessary" in the Redruth police
station and lockup

 

171114 The police lockup and stables, used as a temporary
gaol until the Redruth Gaol was constructed in 1856

171114 Police Station 1879 - 1971.  The original police station on this site
was erected in 1847, demolished in 1878 and replaced with the above
building in 1879 

171114 Former Redruth Methodist Church.  First Wesleyan Chapel was
erected in 1851, dismantled in 1854, restored in 1857.  The current
building was erected in 1874.  The church closed in 1970 and services
moved to the Burra Uniting Church in Chapel Street

171114 Tiver's Row Cottages.  The first cottage was built by James Tiver
in 1856. He was a stonemason employed by the Burra Smelter.
He also built the Redruth Methodist Church

171114 Former Redruth Gaol.  Erected in 1856 as the first gaol outside
Adelaide.  It was closed in 1897 and was renovated and opened
as a girls reformatory in 1897.  The reformatory closed in 1922

171114 Cells in Redruth Gaol

171114 Last Rhyme and Testament of Harry Morant Redruth Gaol.
Portions of the film "Breaker Morant" were filmed at this gaol

171114 Hampton Village site. Township founded by Thomas Powell
in1857.  It was modelled on an English village and was home to
30 miners' families and a Bible Christian Chapel.  It was virtually
abandoned in the 1920's with its last inhabitant leaving in the 1960's

171114 Another "Necessary", this time in the Hampton Village

171114 More Hampton Village

171114 Best preserved cottage at Hampton Village

171114 Miss Mabel's Cottage.  Mabel Baker was born in this cottage in 1883
and lived here, her family's home since 1862, until she died in 1983

171114 Former Smelt Stables and Yards. Built from blocks of slag from
an adjoining smelter.  It was the site of Burra's first agricultural show in
1877 and each year thereafter until 1885

171114 Paxton Square Cottages. Built by the South Australian Mining
Association to encourage miners to leave their dugouts in Burra Creek.

171114 Burra Community School - surrounded by trees.  A model school was
opened in 1878 on a site donated by the Mining Company and built by
Sara and Dunstan.  The High School commenced in 1913.  The primary and
secondary schools combined to form Burra Community School in 1978

171114 Unicorn Brewery.  Built in 1873, it boasted a tall malting tower, a
cooperage, steam driven pumps and extensive cellars. The brewery
was forced to close in 1902 when new licensing laws made the
plant obsolete.  It was demolished for its stone in 1911.

171114 One of the cellars under the Unicorn Brewery

171114 Cottage alongside the Unicorn Brewery, built from stones from the
dismantled brewery chimney stack

171114 Fire pit and bellows in Bon Accord Mine site.  The bellows are made
from elephant skin. The Bon Accord copper mine site was purchased by
Scottish speculators in 1846.  The ore mined was not of saleable quality and
mining ceased in 1882.  However the water from the mine shaft was used to
supply the towns on Aberdeen and Kooringa from 1878 and 1884 respectively.
It continued to do so until 1966, when River Murray water became available
from the Morgan to Whyalla pipeline

 

171114 Burra Town Hall - erected 1857, reconstructed in 1874 and
expanded progressively.  Memorabilia includes The Pascoe Collection
of stud merino sheep photos.  It has also served as council chambers,
lecture theatre, cinema and library

171114 Carbon arc projectors in the Burra Town Hall

171114 Former Kooringa Telegraph Station and Post Office, erected 1861,
now Burra Art Gallery

171114 St Joseph's Catholic Church.  Built by the Jesuits of
Sevenhill in 1874

171114 St Mary's Anglican Church. Built 1849 and famous for its
acoustics, its stained glass windows and 1905 Dodd Pipe Organ

171114 Burra's first motorised fire truck,
a 1927 Ford model T

71114 Former miner's dugouts - bunting to deter entry. Rather than use cottages
provided by the mine owners, the miners built dugouts into the side of
the Burra Creek and its tributaries. This commenced in 1846.  By 1851
1800 people lived in the dugouts.  In 1851, three floods devastated the
 dugouts and by 1860, the dugouts were virtually deserted.

171114 Blyth Cottage- now a B&B

It was indeed a beautiful day, watched over by a beautiful sky ,

171114 A beautiful sky to match a beautiful day