Unlocking Secrets: Conversations with Spirits at Kapunda Christchurch Anglican Cemetery
Channel: M&A Mystery Tours 🇦🇺
Date: 2023-08-27

Copper was discovered at Kapunda by Francis Dutton in 1842. Dutton went into partnership with Captain Bagot who, noting the green colour of the rocks in the area, suspected that there was copper in the region. They purchased 80 acres of land for £1 an acre but it was nearly impossible to determine the worth of their claims. It took two years for samples to be dug, transported to Adelaide, sent to Britain, tests be undertaken, and the results to return to South Australia. The results were almost unbelievable. The copper was 22.5% pure. Many experts now believe that it was the richest lode ever found ... anywhere in the world.
The first mining was initiated by Captain Charles Bagot. He employed the farm labourers on his property to dig the surface copper with picks and shovels. In the first year they dug 600 tons (544 tonnes) of ore which was worth £7000. By December 1844 Cornish miners, experienced in mining for copper, had arrived in the area and the process of underground mining commenced. Francis Dutton sold his 25% share in the mine for £16,000 (a huge sum at the time) in 1846. Captain Bagot now had a 55 per cent controlling share in the mine.
The task of processing the copper was daunting. The copper-bearing rocks were transported by bullock dray to Port Adelaide (a journey which took around 6 days) where they were loaded onto ships and transported to Swansea in Wales. The ore was then smelted in Welsh copper smelting works. By 1850 the mine was producing 100 tons of ore per month.
Once the richness of the Kapunda copper seam was recognised copper experts and labourers travelled from Europe to mine the seam. There was a fascinating division of of labour according to nationality. The Cornish were the expert miners. The Welsh specialised in smelting the copper. The Germans, who had settled in the area before the discovery of the copper, cut down the trees and sold them to fuel the smelters. The Irish worked as labourers and later became the main bullock team drivers and German women grew fruit and vegetables which they sold to the miners. They used to walk their farm produce to the town in wheelbarrows.
German-made smelters arrived at Kapunda in 1849 and the ships which carried the copper to Britain began to stop at Newcastle-on-Tyne where they loaded coal to be shipped to the smelters.
By 1850-51 the mines had reached a depth where they were below the water table (it was found at around 24 metres) and a Buel steam engine was imported to pump the water out. The mines were sunk to 480 feet (around 150 metres).
By 1852 the Kapunda mine almost deserted as men left to try their luck on the Victorian goldfields. Miners did not return to Kapunda until around 1855 and by 1857 production was back at peak production with 4,103 tons of ore being produced.
By 1861, as the sign in the Bagot Museum reveals, there were:
43 miners - mostly Cornish
106 pitmen
23 children - mostly Cornish
82 labourers - mainly Irish
13 boys - mainly Irish
36 smelters and furnacemen - mainly Welsh
The mine at this time was employing 302 men and 36 boys.
The copper was used for copper kettles, copper ladles, candlestick holders, bread-making equipment, copper coins, copper sheeting for ships and also taps and pipes. It was also used to produce brass.
The importance of the Kapunda copper mine declined with the discovery of copper at Burra where the lode was four times the amount of Kapunda and then the mine at Moonta on the Yorke Peninsula was found to be four times the size of the Burra mine.
By 1863 the Kapunda ore lode had been worked out. It was closed down in 1878 and the equipment sold the following year. It opened again on a small scale and continued until 1912. During this time a total of 12,800 tons of copper was mined.
As the mining industry declined the town turned to agriculture. Sir Sidney Kidman, one of Australia's richest rural entrepreneurs and a man who once owned more land than the entire British Isles, moved to the town. When he died in 1935 he controlled 68 large properties which covered 64 million acres of Australia. He regularly held horse sales behind the North Kapunda Hotel and at one famous sale a total of 3,000 horses were offered in an auction which lasted a week. The horses were all the property of Kidman.
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