Copper Triangle and the Pickey Boys

The rain held off today until we'd completed a wonderful round trip to parts of the Yorke Peninsula historic Copper Triangle.

We were hosted by Jim and Janet Cameron who own a gorgeous yacht in the Port Vincent Marina called East of The Lizard. Jim had earlier in the week visited for Fivers and arrived with a bounty of home-made Red Capsicum Paste, Quince Jelly, Marmalade, blood oranges, grapefruit, lemons and some fresh herbs! Quite amazing and we are hugely grateful for this stunning generosity. Jim barely had enough hands to hoist himself on board with his bottle of red. It's OK though, we made him take the red back home with him, only it was IN him, thus ensuring his hands would be free to steady himself getting back onto the jetty. The plan wasn't a total success with feet encountering our springer leads in the darkness. The Bloke was very sympathetic having a bottle of red in him as well.

We knew that it was to be a cracker of a day when we met Henry who shared the ride on the back seat with us.

 Handsome Henry is knitted from the fleece of a sheep named 'Henry'.

The towns of Moonta, Wallaroo and Kadina on the western side of the Yorke Peninsula form the historic Copper Triangle and it was to Moonta that we headed for morning tea. Copper was discovered at Moonta in 1861 and subsequently mined, principally by Cornish miners, until 1923.

Moonta Town Hall - part of it anyway.

By the 1870's Moonta grew to be the second largest town outside of Adelaide and the Town Hall building certainly indicated the prosperity that the Moonta copper mining operations delivered. There are plenty of restored buildings capturing the history of this era.

Although the mining in Moonta itself is long gone, an operational open cut mine exists near Ardrossan on the eastern side of the peninsula, with an estimated further working life of 80 years. Plans for a new or expanded mine are being vigorously opposed locally owing to the extremely productive arable land on the Yorke Peninsula. With South Australia being the driest state on the driest continent, sacrificing scarce and profitable farmland to mining is always going to be a contentious issue.

The Bloke, Jim and Janet viewing the current copper mine  

while Henry took care of the vehicle.

 Toot! Toot! Our carriage awaits.

We arrived at the site of the old Moonta Mine just as the hourly train ride was about to leave. The whole site plus the impressively extensive narrow gauge railway, is lovingly managed by volunteers. In a fit of impulse we thought "Why not!" and jumped on board with half a dozen other passengers; none of us knowing what to expect, including the young couple whose first baby was due in only 4 days. With every jerk and shudder of the trip, all eyes darted in the direction of the mother-to-be.

We were given a live commentary by the driver who had a voice like old-man-time himself; except with a stronger accent. From the parts of the information that we could understand, men, women and children were employed at the mine although only men (16 +) went down below into the mine. Boys as young as 11 were employed as Pickey Boys and their task was to sort the ore after it had been brought to the surface, dropping the different grades (rich, low, waste) down sorting chutes. In the evening the boys would attend school classes at the end of which they'd receive a token to present to their mine superintendent the next day as proof of attendance. Failure to produce the token would result in the their pay being docked. The Mine Museum is quite literally an 'old school' style museum and is housed in the Mines' old School House building.

There is a lot of evidence of all elements of the mining operation and the little train makes a journey lasting around 40 minutes with a couple of stops to look more closely at the various sections. We all agreed it was fascinating. Jim and Janet confessed to never having previously ridden on the train and are now pleased they have.

There are lots of beautiful masonry walls like these.

 The green rocks betray their copper content.

We completed our coast-to-coast travels across the peninsula with a late lunch at a golf course in the dunes at Port Hughes with a view back into Spencer Gulf. We never imagined we'd be seeing Spencer Gulf again so soon.

No day would be complete without Fivers back on Zofia

Yes, another 'diamond day'!