Moonta to Home

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Sunday 23rd May 2010

Moonta, Australia's Little Cornwall, was our destination today, this being an area where Judy believes her ancestors were in the 1800s. It is approximately 165 kilometres north-west of Adelaide, in the upper Yorke Peninsula region and the copper mines in the area were the reason miners were there, copper being found in 1861. The tag Little Cornwall came about as most of the early miners were of Cornish descent, this applying to Judy's family ties.

The town now has many buildings under the National Trust and these may be seen as you drive down the main streets of the town. Just on the outskirts of the town there are some miners cottages preserved and furnished in the Cornish pre-1900 period as well as a sweet shop built in 1946 (a very good year in Rags' opinion) which operated as the post office until the mid 70s.

The town has many tourist venues such as the Mines Museum, Tourist railway, the Railway Station as well as the Wheal Hughes tourist mine. These are all run by over 100 volunteers and from what we saw they do a great job.

We toured the Wheal (Cornish for mine) Hughes and were dressed up in boots and helmets with lights before being taken down into the mine. This was an opencut mine for the first section before going underground. Jock, our guide was most informative and we were given a good understanding of the hardships the miners must have worked under.

After lunch Judy spent the wet afternoon in the History Centre located in the School of Mines building, where volunteers help research family and local history. Judy was thrilled to find some information about family on her father's mother's side, information she had not previously been able to obtain.

As the rain had really set in we did a short drive to the nearby beach areas, where there are some modern mansions being built. We vowed to return in the not to distant future and give this area the time it deserves.

Monday 24th May 2010 - Thursday 27th May 2010

A bleak day greeted us so we had no hesitation in heading for home. As we had over 2500kms to travel we wasted little time anywhere along the way, stopping about 50kms east of Ceduna the first day, across the border into Eucla and on to past Mundrabilla the second, then a huge day of about 800kms to the west of Coolgardie on Wednesday, giving us a relatively short day into Perth on Thursday which we reached by lunchtime after a 6am start.

Both of us feel that the trip was a great experience, was too short to do it full justice, and that we will return to South Australia as soon as we can fit it into our already filling plans. Hopefully we can convince someone else to join us, even if for part of the time, to share the experience.

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Photos

The Moonta Mines Sweet Shop
Just as well that it was closed when we were there, we've bought and eaten far too many of these sorts of fattening goodies this trip.

One of the old miners cottages
This one is opened to the public at times.

Outhouse
Much more sophisticated than the miners' dugouts - this one even has an outhouse! Bit different to what families of today expect!

Head of the Bight
We decided to drive the 12 kilometeres in from the Eyre Highway because the sign at the front said there were 3 whales that could be seen here but they lied! Nevertheless it made for a good lunch spot and had some terrific views.

Rags feeding the birds
Judy came back from a "rest stop" at Balladonia and found Rags surrounded in these birds. They liked his morning tea and were trying to take it from his hands while he was eating it. We think they are yellow throated miners.

Comments

[Kerry Clark]

My forbears on Mum's side were Cornish too. We didn't get our tall genes from the Cornish side! Welcome back to the west. Love Kerry.