Books about Wallaroo

Wallaroo, 1874-1974 (1974)

The Wallaroo Mine, Kadina, SA, 1860-1923 Bailley, K. (1985)

Copper to Gold - a history of Wallaroo 1860-1923 Wiltshire, R. (1985)

Discovering Historic Wallaroo Drew, G. (Comp., 1989)

Copper Brought them Here Roslyn M. Paterson (2011)

South Australian Sources for History and Social Science

SA. A Brilliant Blend

Wallaroo is one of the state's favourite holiday spots, being very popular with families as it is great for swimming, and an excellent place for fishing, relaxing and sightseeing the Copper Coast. Wallaroo is growing very quickly especially with the construction of the new multimillion-dollar marina. Wallaroo is only 160km north of Adelaide and has a great deal to offer, it is a deep sea port, with a jetty which is one of the most popular in the state for fishing. The town is home to the Spencer Gulf Prawn fleet, and is the perfect spot to experience the Peninsula's excellent produce.

Wallaroo offers the traveller many facilities and a variety of accommodation, as well as the many different experiences to enjoy in the area. The town today is a mix of a seaside resort and a working industrial town, surrounded by some of the best grain growing and grazing land in Australia, and the sea. The main industries today include grain and fertilizer. Wallaroo fast became one of the busiest ports in the state and remains so to this day.

The name Wallaroo comes the Aboriginal word 'Wadlu Waru' meaning wallabies urine. The early settler's tried to copy the aboriginals by calling it Walla Waroo, however they found this too big to stamp on the wool bales, so they shortened it to Wallaroo.

Robert Miller first settled the area in 1851 as a sheep grazier; he then sold the land to Walter Watson Hughes in 1857. The land at this time was scrubby Mulga and not of much use for anything but grazing. In 1859 copper was discovered in the Kadina region. Two shepherds working for Hughes found the copper, James Boor in 1859 at Wallaroo and Patrick Ryan in Moonta 1861, in a wombat's hole. The first copper smelter was lit in 1861 at Wallaroo. Copper mining soon became a huge industry and the township of Wallaroo grew rapidly. With the population in 1865 being 3,000, by 1909 it had grown to 4,000, and reached 5,000 in 1920. In the town today there is much evidence of this prosperous era. The township of Wallaroo was formally proclaimed in 1862, from 1861-1923 the port was the most important on the Yorke Peninsula and the largest and most important on the Spencer Gulf until 1890 when Port Pirie built large smelters. The production of copper ceased in the Copper Coast in the 1920's, and the town population started to decline after this.

The jetty in Wallaroo was built 1861; ships brought to the port food, timber, coal and mining equipment. The first load of refined copper was shipped from Wallaroo in 1862 and by 1868 over 100 tons were been produced each week.

Wallaroo. SA Memory

The mines
Copper was discovered in 1859 on Walter Watson Hughes' sheep run 'Wallaroo' by James Boor, one of his shepherds. The Wallaroo mine as it was called developed quickly and, with copper selling for 115 pounds a ton, was very prosperous. Hughes established smelting works on the nearby coast and the town and port of Wallaroo was proclaimed in 1861. Up to 1889 the value of ores sold from the Wallaroo mines was nearly 2.25 million pounds. The Wallaroo Mine lies today on the outskirts of Kadina which was established as a town for housing the miners. In 1889 the Wallaroo and Moonta Mines merged and formed the Wallaroo and Moonta Mining and Smelting Company. The mines finally closed in 1923, but the town and port of Wallaroo continued, with diverging industries and exports. Kadina, originally a support centre for the Wallaroo mine is now a major administrative centre for the region of the northern Yorke Peninsula.

The town
Wallaroo was the name for Walter Watson Hughes' pastoral lease: the Wallaroo Sheep Run. It is coined from an Aboriginal word 'wadla-waru' meaning wallaby's urine.

When copper was discovered on Hughes' run in December 1859 the need for a town and a port was quickly acted upon. The town of Wallaroo was surveyed by the Government in late 1860 and allotments were auctioned early the following year. In November 1861 the smelters began operation. By 1862 the fast growing settlement contained timber cottages, some stone houses, hotels, churches and a police station. East Wallaroo was subdivided in late 1862 and the land sold to men working in the smelters. A horse-drawn tramway connected the town with Kadina in that year and to Moonta in 1866. A railway to Adelaide was opened in 1880.

Postal facilities were initially operated from the general store, but the Post and Telegraph Office was opened in 1865. When a new post office was built in 1910 the old post office was used by the police until 1975. The building now houses the National Trust Museum. A Customs House was built in 1862: Wallaroo had become a large port and exported directly overseas, hence the need for a customs building. The Australian colonies each operated their own Customs service which did not become a Commonwealth operation until after Federation in 1901. The Wallaroo Public School was built in 1877: before this a number of privately run schools provided education to the children of the town.

Bagged wheat was first shipped from Wallaroo during the 1870s and this method of shipment was not changed until bulk handling facilities were established in 1958. Until then large wheat stacks remained a presence in the town, especially after harvest. In July 1917 for instance the stacks contained 2,500,000 bags of grain.

The Corporation of the Town of Wallaroo was proclaimed in 1874; early meetings were held in the Institute building or at the Town Clerk's residence. A town hall was built in 1902 and destroyed by fire in 1917: only the external walls remained standing. It was re-built the following year and a memorial arch to commemorate the men from the town who lost their lives in World War I was erected in front of the Town Hall in 1923.

The Wallaroo Times and Mining Journal was first printed in February 1865 and by 1888 the paper was called the Kadina and Wallaroo Times and operated from Kadina. It is now known as the Yorke Peninsula Country Times.

The smelters
Wallaroo's smelting works were constructed in 1861 by the owners of the Wallaroo Mine to process the ore from there and from the Moonta Mine. The smelting works were at one time the largest smelter outside of Swansea in Wales. Initially using the reverberatory method of smelting, over time the smelter adopted newer processes and remained at the forefront of smelting techniques. Originally the mines had exported pure copper ore but following the opening of the smelters began exporting ingots of a partially refined copper. In the latter years of the smelters' history pure copper, as well as gold, silver and lead were smelted on site. The mines and smelters were finally closed in 1923, and the works were almost completely demolished to recoup as much money as possible for the shareholders. The original chimney for the works, known as the Hughes Stack, was retained as over the years it had become a mark for shipping. It is now heritage listed. Hundreds of miners and workers from the mines left Wallaroo. Many stayed, however, and found employment in the port and agricultural sectors.

The port
Since its establishment in 1860, Wallaroo has remained a viable port. It is a deepwater port where large ships can moor directly alongside the jetties, to be loaded directly from them and later from the bulk-handling conveyor belts.

Just as a number of other South Australian ports, Wallaroo began its existence as a landing beach for the export of wool from local pastoralists. However a few years after the first wool shipment, copper was discovered at Wallaroo in 1859, and shortly after at nearby Moonta. A landing stage was built to facilitate shipping of the copper and in 1861 the first jetty was constructed. The majority of the copper was shipped to Newcastle in New South Wales, and the return cargo was coal for the smelters. The jetty was extended to 1,000 feet in 1864 to accommodate the growing number of vessels trading through the port.

Cargoes were not entirely copper (outwards) and coal (inwards). The small coasting vessels brought in explosives for the mines, timber for jetties and the mines, coal, potatoes and later superphosphate for the farms. Outwards goods included flour, wool and hides. In 1880 another jetty was built, and extended again in 1902. This jetty accommodated the large sailing ships that loaded wheat: these vessels loaded between 29,000 and 30,000 bags at a time. Loading, and hence turn around time was quick at Wallaroo with its long jetty and narrow gauge rail line.

By the early 20th century steamers were increasingly active in the port and gulf - these carried copper ingots to Port Adelaide for trans-shipment. Later the Adelaide Steamship Company's vessels Moonta and Morialta were prominent in the gulfs. In the 1920s when the copper mines were closed Wallaroo fell back onto its other great export, wheat.

Post World War II saw further expansion that ensured Wallaroo's future. Another jetty had been built in 1926 and then in 1958 the conveyor belt for bulk handling was added and the first block of grain silos was built on the shore. The size of the grain carriers increased dramatically. The dredging of a channel assisted in allowing these huge vessels to come into port.

In 1874 Wallaroo had been proud to proclaim itself the second port of South Australia, beaten only by Port Adelaide. A century later, its main trade changed from copper to wheat and it still ranks among the seven major ports controlled by Flinders Ports. During 2005/06, 0.463 million tonnes of cargo was handled at Wallaroo.

In December 2006, a new chapter for Wallaroo shipping opened when the passenger ferry connecting Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas began service. Operated by Sea SA the ferry service runs from Wallaroo to Lucky Bay (near Cowell) on Eyre Peninsula. It removes some 350 kilometres from the road trip from Adelaide to the towns of the Eyre Peninsula.

Yorke Peninsula Place Names.

Sat 2 Apr 1921, The Pioneer (Yorketown, SA : 1898 - 1954) Trove

The discovery of copper in 1860 soon resulted in the establishment of three important townships, and has been of inestimable service to the State ever since. Wallaroo is distortion of the aboriginal words wadla-waru (the d pronounced very softly), meaning wallaby's urine. It shows the care that should be exercised before native words are adopted for place naming. In the course of its corruptive evolution wadla-waru was twisted into Wallawaroo when Captain (afterwards Sir) W. W. Hughes held the country that locality for pastoral purposes. This was considered too cumbersome in the stamping of wool bales, and so the name was clipped to its present day form Wallaroo.

History of Copper Mines on Yorke Peninsula

Fri 2 Nov 1951, The Pioneer (Yorketown, SA : 1898 - 1954) Trove

Here is a brief reference to these mines taken from an article in the 1917 Journal ol the Department of Mines :

"The shepherds who discovered the copper stones on Yorke Peninsula were in the employ of Mr W. W. Hughes who leased the district as a sheep run. For some time Mr. Hughes had felt convinced that there were deposits of copper ore in the district as stones containing copper had been found on the beach near the head station, and fire wood used in the hut of on of the shepherds had burned with a greenish-hued flame. In consequence of these things, he instructed his men to bring him any likely-looking stones. This caused a keen watch to be kept, and one day in 1860 James Boor, one of the shepherds, came across a mound strewn with small pieces of ore thrown up by some burrowing animal, probably a native rat. He put the stones in his pocket, and few days later, when at the head station, showed them to Mr. John Duncan (later Sir John), the station manager. Mr. Duncan soon had a hole dug on the spot and sent samples of the ore to Mr Hughes In Adelaide, who thereupon took out several mineral leases, and these developed into the Wallaroo Mine. The Moonta Mine was discovered in much the same way a few months later, in 1861, by Patrick Ryan, another of Mr. Hughes' shepherds."

The article goes on to say that the development of these mines was facilitated by their proximity to Port Wallaroo where there is an excellent harbour, and also by the level nature of the country which facilitated fhe construction and economical working of tramways between both the mines and the Port. After some wrangling regarding the ownership of the Moonta property, joint stock companies were formed. The Moonta discovery was developed by the Moonta Mining Company and the Wallaroo discovery by the Wallaroo Mining and Smelting Company, by whom smelting works were erected at Pt Wallaroo to treat the ores of both mines. The original leases of 2,098 acres for the Wallaroo Mine and 2.691 acres for the Moonta Mine were granted for 14 years with the right of renewal, but these leases were later changed into leases for 99 years at an annual rental of one shilling an acre and a royalty of 2 and a half % on profits. For several years the Wallaroo Mine was managed by Captain Higgs and the Moonta Mine by Captain Hancock, and in 1889 the two companies were amalgamated with Captain Hancock as the Manager. The Yorke Peninsula Copper Mines were kept working for over 62 years, and produced copper worth over 20 million pounds and paid more than two million pounds in dividends.

According to the records the first miners at Wallaroo came from Burra in 1860, being brought down in a dray by Mr. John Duncan. It is interesting to recall their names. They were Walter Phillips, William Pascoe, Richard Walter and Samuel Truran. They were soon followed by many others with their families. A few month ater, in 1861, Mr. Duncan took a dray-load of men from Wallaroo to Moonta to open he mine there, but their names are not available. The mines were developed rapidly tided by their richness and by the decline of the mines in Burra, Kapunda and Calinton. For from these and other places people flocked to he new mines. Most of them were of Cornish descent, and many of them were ardent Methodists. In a report in the Wesleyan Magazine' of the enlargement of the church at Wallaroo early in 1865, when the Rev. S. Ironside was the visiting preacher from Adelaide, the report says : The population of the district is now about 9,000. Four years ago the kangaroo might have been hunted on the site of our townships, and the solitary hut of the shepherd was the humble representative of the massive buildings which now tell of advanced civilisation and settled commerce .This population was later on augmented by migrants who were brought over from the declining goldfields of Victoria, and by several shiploads brought out from Cornwall, and eventually reached from 15 to 20 thousand.

WALLAROO: The Globe Hotel, Wallaroo; the hotel was leased to Sarah Jane Francis (formerly Nottle) from 1890-1895, she is the shortest woman standing in front of a window with her husband, William Francis, and their four daughters, left to right, Jane, Margaret, Alice, and Elizabeth (sitting)

State Library of South Australia - B 9719

State Library of South Australia - B 21086 - Old Post Office at Wallaroo 1880

State Library of South Australia - B 9716 - Ship Inn, Wallaroo 1877

State Library of South Australia - B 9715 - Wallaroo Inn 1891

State Library of South Australia - B 47390 - Town Hall, Wallaroo 1910

State Library of South Australia - B 8739

Main Street, Wallaroo is a port town and part of South Australia's Copper Triangle. This photograph depicts a prosperous country town with the main street full of parked cars and people gathering to chat in front of the various shops and businesses. The road leads to the sea which can be seen in the distance 1933

State Library of South Australia - B 47349 - The Institute at Wallaroo Mines 1910

State Library of South Australia - B 8789

[General description] Wallaroo town buildings seen from the distance across waste ground. The two storey Eland Bonded Store, built in 1864 and trading in tea, wine, soap and general commodities is prominent. Blackwell & Co., Hamilton Brothers and George Allen are business names that can be seen. See B 8790 for a view further down the street. 1870

State Library of South Australia - PRG 1218/34/715a

View of a chimney at the smelters in Wallaroo, jetty is in the background. Known as 'Hughes Chimney Stack' the chimney was erected in 1861 and named after Sir Walter Watson Hughes, upon whose Moonta pastoral lease copper was discovered. Hughes was also co-founder of the University of Adelaide. 1937

State Library of South Australia - Miners taking a break at Wallaroo Mines - B 45345

State Library of South Australia - B 35614 Post Office, Wallaroo 1920

State Library of South Australia - B 7860

Wallaroo Smelters were constructed in 1861 by the owners of the Wallaroo Mines to process ore. After the opening of the smelter the mines exported ingots of copper, and later gold, silver and lead. The Hughes Stack (original chimney) was used as a navigation marker for shipping

State Library of South Australia - B 28805 - A miner's cottage at Wallaroo 1900

State Library of South Australia - B 45348 Pay Office at front of photograph of the Wallaroo Mines 1905

State Library of South Australia - B 27454

Wallaroo Mines in the foreground. Elder's pumping engine and public school. Kadina can be seen in the distance 1919

State Library of South Australia - B 27450

Young's shaft and winding engine in foreground at Wallaroo Mines 1916

State Library of South Australia - B 12796

Electric motors manufactured in the mines engineering shops at Wallaroo during war time. Shell cases were manufactured for the British Government in the mines shops during 1914-18 at Wallaroo Mines

State Library of South Australia - B 9215

Stopping sides of level underground, Wallaroo Mines 1916

State Library of South Australia - B 1184

Shipping moored at the Wallaroo Jetty, published in the "Observer", January 20, 1923. This jetty was known as Price's Jetty, and demolished in 1974. It was the main jetty used in Wallaroo between 1890 and 1930.

YORKE'S PENINSULA.

Tuesday 5 September 1865, South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1858 - 1889) Trove

The township of Wallaroo is the most pleasantly situated of the three Peninsula townships, being built on the shores of the bay, having a total frontage of about three-quarters of a mile to the sea, and extending inland about the same distance. A gully, up which the railway runs, divides the town into two parts, the houses being built on the slopes on either side. A considerable space from the railway is reserved, as also is the land between the wharf frontages on the western eide of the township, and Lydia terrace on the hill overlooking the sea. The streets, like those of the other townships, are of a good width, and there are several squares, as in Adelaide. The public buildings consist of the Police Station and the Custom House, both very much alike in appearance. A new Telegraph-Station and Post-Office is being erected, and it will, in style of architecture, resemble the other Government buildings. The erection of a gaol is about to be commenced. There are several places of worship, of which the Congregational Church is decidedly the most tasteful in point of architectural appearance. The new Presbyterian Church is a larger and more imposing structure, and is a fine object in view of vessels entering the Bay, being on the hill behind the Smelting Works. The Wesleyan Chapel on the opposite hill is a good building, somewhat resembling the old Piriestreet Chapel in Adelaide. It is now being enlarged, and when the addition is completed, its appearance will be much improved. The Church of England is a small and very plain building, so also is the Bible Christian Chapel. The Roman Catholics have a little wooden chapel, at which service is held once or twice monthly. The Primitive Methodists who have just laid the foundation of a handsome chapel on the Moonta Mines, are also about to erect one in Wallaroo. We believe the Welsh inhabitants at Wallaroo are intending to build a place of worship. The spiritual wants of the population as far as church accommodation goes, are pretty well provided for.

There are plenty of hotels and public-houses. The Cornucopia and the Globe are the two best hotels, and the accommodation they afford is not to be surpassed out of Adelaide. There are four or five public-houses, and several lodging-houses, all of which have their share of public patronage. Wallaroo contains the largest number together of good private residences on the Peninsula, but even here they are not numerous. The representatives of the Upper Ten Thousand as they, are facetiously called, are not a large class on the Peninsula. There are several good shops and general stores, and the appearance of the place indicates a gratifying amount of general prosperity. All the Peninsula townships suggest the idea of thriving and progressive centres of population; but Wallaroo, from being the seaport and principal terminus of the railway and site of the Smelting Works, presents a scene of more activity than the others. The Smelting Works are a noble mass of buildings. They contain 11 calcining furnaces; 22 roasting and reducing furnaces, and three refining furnaces. Upwards of 500 tons of ore are smelted weekly, and more than 80 tons of fine copper made in the same time. 233 hands are directly employed on the works. This is exclusive of the woodcutters, carters, and brick contractors employed in connection with the works.

The railway, commencing opposite the White Lion Hotel, Kadina, and having a branch from the Wallaroo mines, is altogether nearly six and a-half miles in length. In the township of Wallaroo it divides, one branch going up a rise to the Smelting Works, and the other to the end of the jetty. Two and sometimes three trains daily loaded, with ore from the mines are drawn by hones for about half the distance to Wallaroo. They are then at the commencement of the incline, and the horses being detatched, the trucks run down at the rate of about 15 miles an hour, their speed being regulated by the breakaman. The impetus they gain in the descent, is sufficient to carry them about 150 yards up a considerable rise to the Smelting Works, where they are unloaded, and the empty trucks drawn back to the mines to be again filled.

A comfortable and commodious pasaenger truck runs three times a day each way between Kadina and Wallaroo. One good horse will draw in this way a load, including the carriage, weighing more than three tons, at the rate of ten miles an hour. We are informed that the traffic on the line amounts to about 1,200 passengers per month.

The jetty, which is about 600 feet long and 33 feet wide, is capable of accommodating at one time five or six vessels discharging or taking in cargo. Ships of 900 tons have laid alongside. The depth of water at the end of the jetty is about 16 feet at low tide, and it shoals very gradually towards the shore. The workshops, offices, stores, and stables of the railway are on the wharf. It is interesting to watch the horses at work on the jetty. Some of them appear to be as well-trained as circus horses. They twist and turn about at the bidding of their drivers in an incredibly small space of time, and push the loaded trucks with their chests, which are protected by a leather pad. We have seen one of these horses dragging a load after him, and at the same time propelling a truck in front with his chest. The amount of work done at the jetty, and on the railway is very considerable. We are informed that at a very busy time above 5,000 tons passed over the jetty in one month. More than half of this was coal for the Smelting Works. We believe the imports of general merchandise are about 1,030 tons per month. The Railway Company employ about five and twenty horses, and as the rains seldom afford an adequate supply of water for the year, they have a still which is worked during the summer, and by means of which 1,600 gallons of fresh water is distilled in 24 hours. Some persons think this distilled water unwholesome, but we believe this is not the case. When first made it tastes flat, like boiled water, but after some days as it becomes aerated it improves in this respect. Any simple plan for agitating the distilled water would speedily accomplish, the necessary aeration.

Front Door Of Yorke's Peninsula. Passing Of A Great Industry

Thursday 25 August 1932, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954) Trove

The motto of Wallaroo is Hope (Spes.) It required all the optimism of the people to pull them through the crisis of eight years ago, when the famous smelters ceased operations after a period of over sixty years. But with the courage of the race Wallaroo gritted its teeth, and adjusted itself to the new conditions. Now it feels it can meet the future without fear.

A tall, spare man, with iron grey hair, who gives you the impression that he is built on springs—such is Dr. W. H. Harbison, the present Mayor of Wallaroo. He is a mass of nervous energy. Such men are usually “doers.” I have met numbers of them, and they were all alike — full of enthusiasm, public spirit, and progress. The moment I set eyes on his worship of Wallaroo I knew I was in the presence of a man inordinately proud of his town. How a doctor with a busy practice, liable to be called out all hours of the night, can find time to discharge the duties of mayor, and preside over the innumerable committees which form so large a part of the life of an important country town, was something which had me puzzled. Dr. Harbison not only does the job, but he does it with a thoroughness which should put many a more leisured man to shame. I was soon to find out he did it. I struck the doctor at the tail end of his consultation hour, and waited while he finished off his patients.

Come to think of it, you don't need to take that line too literally. "Now, come along," he said, springing from his chair with a suddenness suggesting that someone had jabbed a pin into him. I went along. The doctor's long legs covered the ground at a speed reminiscent of the seven-leagued boots. In two minutes I was panting beside him.

"Are you in a hurry, doctor?" I gasped, as mildly as I could.

"Am I walking too fast?" he asked in surprise.

"Probably not," I replied, "but I think I am."

There you have a picture of the man who is the driving force of civic Wallaroo. We went everywhere. We saw everything. We photographed everything. I say "we" because the energetic mayor was director of ceremonies, and I was only the instrument of his will.

"Take that," he would say, as his long arm shot out towards some local landmark. And I "took" it. The result was that, at the end of the day, I had 32 photographs to fill a space designed for ten.

Dr. Harbison has twice been Mayor of Wallaroo. He is a living epitome of its history. He has the most amazing set of miscellaneous records of any man I have ever met. His rooms are full of them. His office at the hospital is full of them. He can tell you the name of every patient who has passed through the institutlon, what he suffered from, how long he was there, and a great deal about him. It was like the record room at police headquarters. And he has done all this amazing work himself in his "spare" time. He is the sort of man who would do a job while you were thinking about it.

Ghostly City

I crept over the six miles of bitumen road which separates Wallaroo from Kadina through a cloud of thick, white fog. One had to move cautiously, for obstacles on the road loomed up unexpectedly and shapelessly. A black shadow might be a man, a cow, or a motor car, and disaster could easily lift ahead at an unexpected bend in the road. Occasionally I could glimpse the top of a tree through the clouds, but that was all.

Presently I saw a sign. "Welcome to Wallaroo," as though some invisible hand had temporarily drawn aside a curtain. It sounded nice and friendly —but I could see no Wallaroo. The town was wrapped in the white mantle. Very gradually the houses loomed up like ghostly, unsubstantial things. It was too early to do any work, and impossible to use the camera. So I pulled up and waited with what patience I could summon for the sun to come through, and dissipate the opaque obscurity. It did this at the end of an hour. The cloud parted like magic, and I found myself looking down on the sea, where steamers were loading at the jetty and trucks of wheat were being shunted in the busy station yard. To my right loomed the two tall chimneys which mark practically all that remains of the famous Wallaroo Smelters.

End Of A Great Industry

Later in the day the mayor and I stood on a hill overlooking the site of these noted works, which in past years meant so much to Wallaroo. For some time neither of us spoke, but instinctively I knew our thoughts were running parallel.

After an interval Dr. Harbison remarked:— "Heartbreaking, isn't it?" It was. I do not think there is anything so pathetic as a scene of past activity. Even a banquet table after the guests have gone gives one an impression of melancholy. In the case of the Wallaroo Smelters it was distressing to view the once animated place. Most of the buildings were gone, and the few which remained were roofless, windowless, and doorless. The blast furnaces were dead, and around them were a mass of tumbled bricks. The railway line which ran through the works in prosperous days, the huge converter shed, the dumps of slag, the gantries, the refineries, the acid tanks—the whole of the modern and expensive plant of one of the largest and most up to date smelters in the world had vanished. A former resident of the town returning after an absence of ten years, would not have recognised the place. A generation hence the smelters will not even be a memory. Practically nothing of them remains today. Nothing at all will remain twenty years hence, save, of course, the two tall chimneys which serve as a beacon for ships coming into port.

It Is a curious feature of our history books, even those of recent date, that they stress the importance of the Kapunda and Burra copper mines, but merely mention, or ignore altogether, the immeasurably more important mines of Wallaroo and Moonta. Yet, in a sense, Kapunda and Burra were mere muck heaps in comparison with Moonta and Wallaroo.

I was particularly interested in the tall square chimney of the original smelters, that chimney of which Sir Walter Hughes was so proud that he had his initials, "W.W.H., 1862," built into the stack. They are still there today, but Time has not been kind to them, and unless they were pointed out to you, you would probably miss them.

At the time this chimney was being built another was being erected at Port Adelaide. Wallaroo had determined to smelt its own ores, but the ore from the Burra mines was to be treated al Port Adelaide. The building of the two chimneys developed into a race between the builders, which caused considerable excitement amongst the people concerned. Wallaroo won, and to signalise the victory Captain Hughes had an immense fire lit so that the smoke could be seen for a long distance as an indication that the big work was finished.

Capital Might Have Been On Y.P.

According to Mr. Rodney Cockburn, whose hobby it is to hunt down the names of towns with the persistency that a farmer hunts rabbits. Wallaroo is a corrupted name. Its original aboriginal form was Wadla-waru, a term with rather an indelicate significance. In the early days of the Peninsula the word was corrupted to Wallawroo. The station hands, finding this too long, for marking on the wool bales, corrupted it to its present form. Now, I suppose, it will be Wallaroo for all time.

Just as the towns of Kadina and Moonta grew round the mines, so Wallaroo grew behind the smelters. In its earlier days the population was largely Welsh, the original smelters having been brought to South Australia from the historic principality. The works were established almost on the foreshore overlooking Wallaroo Bay, and a tiny, scattered town grew to the east of them. Today there is a population of 3,500, and one of the finest centres existing outside the metropolis.

Wallaroo is cut into two by the rail way, which traverses the centre of the town. The main street, Owen terrace, faces the railway reserve on the northern side. Another shopping district, John terrace, occupies the southern. For many years the population was dependent entirely on the smelters. There was little thought of agriculture. The land was regarded as worthless — the old, old story. Today it is recog nised as part of the finest wheat belt in Australia. They did not have much of an idea of the future of the "Three Towns" in 1865. A document of the period says: —“The district is unfavorable for the settlement of a large population in consequence of the entire absence of fresh water. The water used for domestic purposes is obtained by distilling the salt water drawn up from the mines, and by catching and storing the rain water in the winter season." Was ever a prophecy more completely falsified? Wallaroo, Moonta, and Kadina are now three of the largest and most important centres in the State!

It will probably be news to many that there was a time when the question of establishing the capital on Yorke Peninsula was seriously under consideration. This was in 1831, before the settlement of the province. When the matter of founding South Australia was under discussion in England, Major A. Bacon suggested that a site for the capital should be selected on Yorke Peninsula. The proposal was rejected in favor of one deferring the matter until alter the country had been surveyed.

Record Wheat Shipments

Anyone who has doubts about the "wretchedness" of the agricultural lands by which Wallaroo is surrounded should visit the port as I did in the shipping season. He would then see long train loads of the precious grain crawling along the jetty, and big overseas ships lying alongside to receive the cargo into capacious holds. When I was there the Treherbert and Naples Maru were taking in grain for Europe and Japan. The sheds were full of wheat and barley, and long strings of trucks were waiting the attention of the wharf workers. Things looked so busy that then and there I dived into the matter of wheat shipments. I was told that this season would provide a record since the cessation of the compulsory wheat pool of post-war days. Here are the respective shipments for the 11 years since that unhappy dose of socialism was swallowed:—

Year. Bags. Year. Bags.
1921-22 .. 1,617,367 1926-27 .. 2,430,283
1922-23 .. 1,892,885 1927-28 .. 1,619,763
1923-24 .. 2,824,042 1923-29 .. 1,226,601
1924-25 .. 2,172,049 1929-30 .. 1,334,787
1925-26 .. 2,105,706 1930-31 .. 1,677,267
1931-32 .. 2,273,557 (to end of June)

There is still plenty of wheat in sight to be shipped this year. It is confidently expected that when the figures are complete they will exceed 3,000,000 bags. That certainly does not look like stagnation.

Some Local Features

Wallaroo was incorporated as a town in 1874 . There was the customary "strenuous opposition." Reactionaries here always were, and always will be. But in this case they could not stay the stream of progress. Municipal Wallaroo has never looked back. The first mayor was Mr. T. Davies. The first town clerk was Mr. W. Allison. The present clerk is Mr. J. F. Herbert, an ex-mayor, and one time colleague of Mr. Verran as member for Wallaroo.

One of the worst blows the town received municipally was the destruction of the town hall by fire in 1917. With it went the valuable records of the corporation. Today Wallaroo cannot supply a complete list of the names of the men who helped to make it. The mayor, Dr. Harbison, is working patiently to restore the local archives.

The old town hall has been replaced by a larger and better structure at a cost exceeding £10,000. This does not include the handsome clock and chimes, which were presented to the corporation by Mr. Richard Tonkin. The hall seats a thousand persons. The stage is one of the largest outside the metropolis. The "pictures" are run by a town syndicate, which exercises a local supervision over the films displayed.

Wallaroo stages one annual fixture which, I believe, is unique. They call it the Old Folks' Home. Just why it bears that name I cannot tell you. It suggests a public charitable institution, but Wallaroo has nothing of the kind. The Old Folks' Home was inaugurated in 1920. On the second Saturday in December the elderly people of the town are invited to an outing. A committee of townspeople provide motor cars, and the old folk are taken for a two-hours drive. This is followed by a dinner at night in the town hall. It is a splendid idea. It provides a reunion to which the old people look forward from one year to another. It is their day. They are made to feel they are somebody. It is also Wallaroo's tribute to those who have done their bit, and are now sitting back, leaving it to the doers of today to carry on. A town which does that sort of thing is a town with a conscience. It is a rather nice town to know.

As you stalk along behind the old smelters your nostrils are inclined to be assailed by a pungent odor— sulphuric acid. Then you know you are close to one of Wallaroo's staple industries— the manufacture of super phosphate. I did not have to poke my nose into those big works. On the contrary they forced themselves on my notice. As I gazed on the huge smoking chimneys I could not help speculating on the wonders of science. For super phosphate is science — science with the biggest 'S' it is possible to give it. Super has made South Australia. It is still making it. In the days before this artificial fertiliser was known farmers often had to be content with four bushel crops. I am not exaggerating. In many of the wheats-growing areas on the Peninsula I spoke to pioneer farmers, who told me that figure was a common one in their early days. Today the same land is yielding 20 bushels and more because science has come to its aid. When I hear a man scoff at science, as sometimes I do, I feel like injecting a solution of super phosphate into his thick head to see if it will produce ideas.

Mrs. Carleton's Grave

"Is there anything in Wallaroo you want to see particularly?' enquired his worship.

"Yes," I answered promptly, "Mrs. Carleton's grave."

So we motored south to the cemetery, where all that is mortal of the authoress of the "Song of Australia" is resting under a cement slab. At the entrance to the cemetery stands a granite monument, erected by the Australian Natives' Association in commemoration of Mrs. Carleton's masterpiece. On it is inscribed the first verse of the inspiring poem. This monument, however, does not stand over the grave, which is almost at the opposite end of the ground. The grave itself bears a plain slate stone with the names of Mrs. Carleton and her husband. Mrs. Carleton died at Wallaroo on July 11, 1874, at the age of 54. She was the widow of a gentleman who had been superintendent of cemeteries. Although she is generally remembered as the writer of the "Song of Australia," she wrote extensively for the press of her day, chiefly poetry and short stories.

I let my eyes stray round, and they came to rest on a nearby pillar. The inscription struck me. It seemed to me that a whole volume of romance lay buried there. This was the inscription: —

Jesus St. John XIV. J. St. J.M. — F.E.A.M.

"What does it mean?" I asked.

"I don't know," said Dr. Harbison. "No one does."

Nobody knows now. Then you may depend upon it, the mystery will deepen with the years.

Wallaroo has an old-fashioned police station. It looks as if it were built in the year one. It is a converted stable, and gives one the impression that it could tell all sorts of stories if it chose. Unfortunately, when I investigated this apparent treasure mine it proved a dud. The old walls refused stubbornly to part with their secrets. But I was not deceived by its pseudo-respectability. I knew the secrets were there. The trouble was, I had not the art to extract them.

There is another police building on the other side of the town, which is the divisional headquarters. It occupies the site of the original post office. Inspector R. Giles is the officer in charge. This is the centre of a police district, embracing 17 important towns extending from Edithburgh in the south to Port Broughton In the north. It is not large as police districts go, but it includes Wallaroo, Ardrossan, Balaklava, Blythe, Brinkworth, Bute, Edithburgh, Kadina, Maitland, Minlaton, Moonta, Port Broughton, Port Victoria, Port Wakefield, Snowtown, and Stansbury, as well as the lesser towns within the area. A job of that kind is no sinecure.

I stood on the old weighbridge which is still intact, in the midst of the surrounding desolation, which was once the Wallaroo Smelters. A memory came back to me of the almost forgotten story of its construction. When the workmen were excavating the site, l co not know how many years ago, they came on the remains of a blackfellow, who had been buried in a sitting posture. It appears he was a "king" held in great veneration by the aboriginal population. The story of the "desecration" got round among the natives with that incredible speed which has always mystified the whites and there was a great hubbub among the brethren of the bush. The white workers left the body where it was while they deliberated that, night as to what should be done with it. The natives solved the problem in their own way. They stole the body, and carried it off to the sandhills, where it was reinterred. For some days after that the black population was so sullen that the whites deemed it wise to keep a sharp eye on them. There were times when the peninsula blacks were liable to hit back. And when they did someone usually got hurt. In this case, however, a short fit of the sulks was the only trouble.

On Yorke's Peninsula.

Saturday 2 September 1899, Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954) Trove

The Wallaroo Mines. -- Though South Australia became famous as a copper-producing country more than 60 years ago, because of the rich finds at Kapunda and the Burra, it was not until 1860 that the first mine on Yorke's Peninsula was started. Both the Wallaroo mines, which were inaugurated in that year, and the Moonta mines, which came into existence less than a year later, are located on what was once known as the Wallaroo Sheeprun, then owned by Captain W. W. Hughes, afterwards knighted because of his munificence in founding the Adelaide University. The station at the time of the discovery was under the management ot his partner and brother-in-law, Captain J. Duncan, father of Mr. W. H. Duncan, who sits for Onkaparinga in the present Parliament, and of Mr. J. J. Duncan, who for six years represented in the Assembly the district in which the since famous mines were found. A curious incident prior to the discovery is thus related by Mr. J. J. Duncan, who from that time to the present has been intimately connected with the mines. On one occasion, while Captain Hughes was at the hut occupied by James Boor, the shepherd who afterwards picked up the first copper, he observed that there was given off by the fire a colored flame such as is produced by copper ore. He expressed the opinion that there was copper among the firewood, and probably attached to a root. The firewood, on enquiry, was proved to have been carted from the locality in which the Wallaroo mine is now situated, for the country was then partly covered by scrub, but no find of importance was made at that time. At the period referred to the flocks were shepherded, as wild dogs were plentiful, and although the locality was fair grazing country, the only water available for man or beast was procured from shallow wells in the sandhills near the sea coast. Frequently the water was very brackish, and the method of procuring a supply for drinking was to skim the surface before it was generally disturbed by dipping the bucket into the well. The fresher fluid floated on the top of that more thoroughly impregnated with salt. Captain Hughes had been for years an enthusiastic searcher for minerals, and the Hughes Park property near Watervale contains evidence of this in the shape of shafts and drives made in the hills before the discovery on Yorke's Peninsula occurred. Here traces of carbonates were found, and there was also an earlier discovery at Wallaroo of carbonate ore below high-water mark on the coast between the present smelting works and Point Hughes, which is the southern extremity of Wallaroo Bay. These continual prospectings educated the men on the run so that they knew copper ore when they saw it, and Boor recognised the valuable carbonates at once when he stumbled across the Wallaroo mine. The important find he made in 1860 was therefore really the result of information obtained from his employer. It has often been asserted that the busy little animal which did the earliest excavation on the rich lode which Mr. Boor first saw was a wombat, but that is incorrect. We have Mr. Duncan's authority for affirming that the original find was at a rat hole, and near by is the site of the initial sinking, now named the Home shaft. A later find was made to the west at a wombat hole, and here the Wombat shaft was put down. These workings are on the same line of lode, and are just about five miles east of the sea at Wallaroo Bay.

Directly the great event was reported to him, Captain Duncan dispatched his son with the news and a bag of ore to Captain Hughes, who then resided on another station, known as 'The Peak,' in the neighborhood of Watervale. The messenger, who was accompanied by a blackfellow, owing to the low condition of his horses, took several days to accomplish the journey, although it was only 80 miles in length. Boor, it may be mentioned, took the treasure trove somewhat calmly, and did not report his discovery to Captain Duncan until some days after it was made. Then the manager dug a shallow hole and obtained the samples which were sent to Captain Hughes. The word Wallaroo is an abbreviation of the real native name. Mr. Duncan remembers being told by his father that the original title was 'Walla Waroo,' but that it was shortened so as to be more convenient for printing on the wool bales. Captain Hughes took immediate steps to test Boor's discovery, and for that purpose dispatched at once to Wallaroo additional station hands to continue sinking, and procured without delay from the Burra four experienced copper miners, namely, Messrs. Walter Phillips, William Pascoe, Richard Walter, and Samuel Truran. On their arrival at the site, Mr. J. J. Duncan remembers that a most characteristic Cornish method was adopted for selecting the exact spot for the sinking of the first shaft. One of the miners taking his stand at the pit previously dug swung a pick round his head and let it fly, no doubt in the direction in which the ore seemed to be dipping, and where the pick fell was marked out the Home shaft. Subsequent discoveries in the immediate locality were the Wandilta, Matta, and Bingo mines, the lastnamed of which opened up a surface deposit that exceeded by far anything else on the Peninsula, not excepting the great find at Moonta made in 1861 by Patrick Ryan, another shepherd on the Walla Waroo run. Huge blocks of rich ore were quarried from the Bingo deposit, but that was the beginning and the end of it, for nothing satisfactory was found by sinking. In the very early days the Wallaroo miners, as well as the company, had to depend for fresh water on supplies carted from Tickera, 20 miles distant, and Tipara, rather further away, but later appliances for distilling water were erected on the ground. In working the Wallaroo mine Sir Walter Hughes was greatly assisted by his financial agents, Messrs. Elder, Stirling, & Co., then comprising Sir Thomas Elder, Mr. Edward Stirling, Mr. John Taylor, and Mr. R. Barr Smith, whose names are all perpetuated by the christening of shafts on the property. The same combination in 1861 erected the smelters on Wallaroo Bay, with smaller works at Hunter River, Newcastle, whence coal was obtained, the poorer ores being sent there for smelting. Mr. J. J. Duncan, who carried the news of the discovery to Captain Hughes, was several years afterwards accountant of the smelting works, and he then acted in a similar capacity for the Wallaroo mines, of which he was subsequently a director. The first chairman of the Wallaroo mines was Mr. Edward Stirling, the first secretary Mr. W. Mair, and the first manager Captain Eneder Warmington. Mr. D. Davidson, the present secretary of the Wallaroo and Moonta Mining and Smelting Company, was the only other secretary of the Wallaroo mines, but the subsequent managers were in succession :- Captain East, Captain Dunstan, Captain H. R. Hancock, Captain Higgs, and then Captain H. R. Hancock again. The present manager is Mr. H. Lipson Hancock. During the early history of the mines and smelting works the late Mr. Gavin D. Young was general superintendent, and on his retirement Mr. James Harvey occupied the same position as regarded the Wallaroo mines and smelters until 1885, when the office was amalgamated with others. At present the leases held at Wallaroo mines total 1,528 acres.

In the Wallaroo mines office, which is only a few minutes walk from the railway-station on the mines, is a beautiful drawn diagram, which was executed by Mr. J. M. Painter in January, 1862, depicting the Home, the Wombat, and Smith's shafts, the deepest of which was then 20 fathoms, or 120 ft. The present plan shows that there is only one lode, which towards the western end under ground splits up into three branches in the shape of an elongated leaf, and meets again at the further extremity, afterwards branching out once more. The order of the shafts travelling from west to east, that is towards Kadina, on the main lode, is as follows:— Hancock's, 270 ft.; Wannington's, 270 ft.; Hughes's, 1,020 ft.; Young's, 950 ft.; Office, 1,620 ft. (one of the main workings, which is still sinking) ; Home, 1,020 ft. (the oldest now in operation, and used as a means of communication); Taylor's, 1,650 ft. (which is the main working, and which communicates with the Office shaft at 1,350 ft., and will soon have driven through to the Office shaft at 1,470 ft.); and Elder's, 840 ft. All these are joined together by a network of drives and winzes, all the productive ground in the upper levels having been stoped away. Isolated to the east, on the plain nearest the town, are Stirling's and the Matta shafts, the deepest of which is 350 ft., but they are neither of them now worked. The distance along the main lode from Hancock's to Elder's shaft is 3,300 ft. The southern branch of the western end is called Davey's lode, and Davey's shaft is on this, while the northern branch is Young's lode, on which is Young's shaft. To the north, at the extreme western end, are two parallel lodes, known as Mair's and Milne's, while to the south of the main lode in the same vici-nity is the old Devon lode, on which are sunk the Robinson and Hosking's shafts, the Kurilla mine being on a lode to the west of this. Between the Office and Home shafts is Duncan's attle pass, which goes down to the 1,110-ft. level; the Stack attle pass is near Taylor's shaft, and goes down to the 1,230-ft. level; and Hosking's attle pass, on the other side of Taylor's shaft, descends 1,110 ft. Down these the tailings from the concentrates, or the 'attle,' as the barren rock from about the reef is called, is shot to fill up the depleted workings as the ore is extracted. On the Kurilla mile, about a mile to the south of the office, are Grainger's shaft, 150 ft.; Hall's shaft, 1,200 ft. ; the Hauling shaft, 330 ft.; and Gurner's shaft, on one lode, while on the other, communicating by crosscuts from Hall's shaft, is Morphett's lode, which is worked to a depth of 1,200 ft. The hauling is done through Hall's shaft, and eight or nine stopes are working at Kurilla, but the yield of ore is much less than it was. However, the yellow ore produced, containing sulphur, iron, and 14 per cent, of copper, is the highest class obtained from Wallaroo mines. A surface plan, drawn by Mr. J. M. Painter in 1861, will be of great interest to old residents on the mine, because it shows the exact position of Searle's boarding-house, Mr. Sharple's residence and chapel, the doctor's residence, and Mr. Hall's residence and store. There are 870 men and boys working on the Wallaroo mines, and they nearly all live on the mineral sections. The better class of houses on the blocks were built by the company along the railway-line and between it and the mines. Altogether there are about 400 houses on the property, the architecture in most instances being somewhat primitive, consisting, as it does, of a succession of lean-to buildings, growing lower and lower as they get to the back. The fences are nearly all composed of vertical ti-tree stems fixed close together, though some are of stone and others of palings. The plain is covered with these dwellings, some of which look very cosy and comfortable, although little attention has anywhere been paid to street alignments. Recently, however, the company has macadamised a new road leading from Kadina to Kurilla through the centre of the mines, in order to economise cartage, which is heavy owing to the quantity of big trees received from Port Germein for timbering the drives, and the other material brought by road. The wood industry is of great importance to the district, for, when farmers between Kadina and Barunga are not busy with their wheat, they can turn their attention to cutting mallee, of which 25,000 tons is taken by the mines annually. 'Good machinery well looked after' is Mr. Hancock's motto, which also applies to other means of working the mines. There is a State school on the mines conducted by Mr. Stevens, the average attendance being 300, while there is a police-station both there and at Moonta, the watchmen in each place being sworn-in as special con-stables. The Wesleyan, Primitive Metho-dists, and Bible Christians have fine, roomy churches, and there is a Salvation Army barracks. There are no hotels and no shops. An institute is established in connection with the mine, and it has a large library, while there is also a postoffice, the buildings in each instance belonging to the company. Kurilla is connected with Mr. Hancock's house at Moonta Mines by telephone, and there are also telephones from Wallaroo mines to Moonta and Kadina, as well as to the different establishments. Mechanical shops for doing needful repairs are near the office, but all the heavy work is done at Moonta mines, where 450 tons of castings are turned out yearly. There is also a branch store from Moonta head-quarters for the supply of mining material. Wallaroo Mines have a recreation ground, planted with 300 trees, and there is a brass band. The company bought the instruments, for which the miners are paying in instalments.

There are three separate crushing and jigging plants— at Elder's shaft, the Devon mine, and the Kurilla mine — each treating 500 tons of crude ore weekly. Elder's main pumping station works 14-in. pumps at five strokes a minute, and in that period throws 300 gallons of water, or 18,000 gal-lons an hour. It unwaters all the central part of the mine, over a mile of flat rods being connected with it. These operate the pumping gear at Robinson's and Hos-king's shafts on the old Devon Consols parallel lode, a third of a mile away, as well as the pumps at the Office shaft, at Taylor's Rhaft, and at Elder's shaft under its own beam. Hughes's pumping plant (another draught engine) empties that shaft, and by means of rods on the surface works the pump at Young's. At the Ku-rilla mine an ordinary horizontal rotary engine at Hall's shaft does the pumping, the others being Cornish draught engines enclosed in narrow and lofty stone houses. Of the various hauling shafts, the chief are Taylor's, Office, and Hall's, and all have extensive headgear. The youngest shaft is Robinson's, which was sunk about 20 years ago. There is a perfect forest of pulley stands carrying the wire hauling ropes from the engines at the various shafts to the different skips for carrying the miners to and from their labor and to draw the broken ore to the surface. The Wallaroo mines stopped working in August, 1878, although copper was then at £72, and they were not started again until April, 1880, although in the meanwhile the water was kept out. The reason of the stoppage was that the ore raising had overtaken development, whereas nowadays three or four years' supply of ore is always kept in sight. It was asserted that copper would not pay at £75, and it is remembered that once when copper was at £90 the directors visited Moonta and remarked that if the price did not increase operations would have to be stopped. How ever, with copper at £38 Mr. Hancock made the mines meet expenses. Once 40,000 tons of wood used to be burnt yearly on both mines, but now 15,000 tons of coal are bought annually, although still from £8,000 to £9,000 is distributed each twelve months among the farmers for wood and hay. Recently a cargo of Oregon costing £3,000 was landed at Wallaroo Bay for use in the mines. Square Tasmanian hardwood is employed for the shafts and skip roads, with round gum and mallee for the general underground workings. In addition to the cottages of the miners the flat surface of the mines carries many buildings. There are 40 horses in the stables, so that big stacks of hay have to be provided, and recently a large drying house has been erected near the Office shaft, in which the miners may leave their wet clothes when they come up from work. Churches stand out most prominently amid the mounds of spoil and heaps of ore surrounding the tall poppet-heads, lofty enginehouses, and high overhead trams. A reservoir has been hollowed out on the flat to conserve 1,000,000 gallons. Stirling's shaft is now marked only by a heap of mullock, and the surface works at Matta are dismantled.

Mr. Hancock is assisted in his work by most excellent officers, and every precaution is taken against accident, nothing that can help in that direction being withheld. This policy has been rewarded by the scarcity of mishaps among the 1,800 men constantly employed at the two mines. Once five years went by without a single fatality. The method of descending the shafts is by iron cages or skips, two of which, each carrying four men, are fixed one above the other, and so protected by safety clutches as to be free from danger, even should the rope break. The shafts are almost vertical for 120 ft., and then dip away to the south to 600 ft., becoming nearly vertical again, until the 840-ft. level is reached, when they continue in a straight line to the bottom. The motion of the cage is quite easy. Visitors, before descending, must strip off all their clothes and don a mining suit, even boots and socks being changed. They are supplied with proper hats to protect the head from falling stones, and are each supplied with a lump of soft clay and a candle. The drives are usually 7 ft. high by 6 ft. wide, but they sometimes open out on the ore to a breadth of 15 ft. They are timbered with mallee and gum from 8 in. to 15 in. in diameter, and at regular intervals shoots open into them under each of the stopes. These shoots are passes timbered up to the higher levels during the stoping operations, and when all the ore has been emptied down them they are filled with tailings from the surface. About 15 ft. is stoped away in height at one stage, and it is then cleared of the ore or vein stuff. The cavity thus formed is made up again with the broken attle or tailings, which are either trucked from the shoots or sent in direct from the passes. In Wallaroo mines 50 stopes are in operation, and at Kurilla 9, the staff of men varying in each case from four to eight, while in most instances either four or six men are employed. Captain N. Opie is the chief resident underground officer at the Wallaroo mines, and he was one of the party who took the late Duke of Clarence down to the 900-ft. level in 1881. There are trucks in every drive, and a large staff of timber men is required to keep the workings secure, and to attend to the skip, roads, and trams. A big item in connection with the mines is the maintenance in good trim of the trams and waggons, as, in Captain Hancock's opinion, good appliances often make good workmen. All the stopes are taken out on contract at so much per fathom. The scene below its most weird, for all around beyond the circle of the flickering light from the candles is black dark-ness illuminated in spots as a little group of miners is seen at work, their faces showing up distinctly in the glow of flame, while their figures melt into dimness. The winzes are sunk downwards for 60 ft. from the top level, and then from below a 60-ft. vise is put up to meet them, and it requires very accurate mine surveying to enable them to hit exactly. The rise is made by means of Hancock & Son's patent rock-drills, which are found to be the most efficient procurable, although a dozen others have been tried. They are worked by compressed air, which is led from the surface and along the drives by means of pipes. The drills are used in the ends of the shafts and drives as well as in the rises, the process being to drill holes in a circle, taking the centre out first, and then blasting inwards from above and below. Sometimes the drills, which are tested in the workshops will aggregate 30 or 40 ft. of boring each for a shift of eight hours. The winzes fill with water while the work from below is proceeding, for the Wallaroo mines are in a continual state of drip, drip, along the sides and roofs of the drives. When the rock-borer gets nearly through to the bottom of the upper winze the water is pumped out, and it is kept dry until communication is secured. In the two mines nearly 36 tons of dynamite are used each year, the cost of this explosive alone being over £5,000. The drive runs on the course of the lode, which is stoped from top to bottom, 60 that it is really an open-cut, except for the poorer stuff, which is not taken away.

Elder's pump has an 80-in. cylinder, and a 10-ft. stroke, the casing of which has a tremendous appearance. The steam-pipe is 16 in. in diameter internally, and it takes the steam to the piston, and by pressing it down raises the rods in the shaft. The equilibrium valve is automatically opened, and the piston rises in the cylinder because of the weight of the rods. This is the end of the first stroke. The bottom is then opened by the exhaust valve, which lets the steam into the condenser, and that forms a vacuum under the piston, and so renders it ready for again letting the steam in at the top of the piston. The water is forced up the different columns towards the surface as the rod goes out of doors and sinks in the shaft. A balance bob weighted with 45 or 50 tons of stone is connected with these rods, and this takes up any excess weight above that of the water and friction, the equilibrium of the pump so being kept just sufficient to force up the water. The weight of the cylinder, which is 13 ft. high, is 20 tons. The beam of cast iron weighs 30 tons, and, like the rest of the machine, was made by Harvey & Co., of Hayle, Cornwall, in 1862 for the New Cornwall mine, not far from Kadina. The beam is branded 'New Cornwall mines, South Australia, F. W. Basset, engineer, 1862.' It cost about £20,000, and was bought for £3,000, the whole of the engine-house and machinery being brought from the old shaft a mile or two away. The stones were numbered and put up in the same position again. From the lofty bob platform at Elder's pumping-house the ruins of the New Cornwall surface buildings can be seen over the old Matta pumpinghouse. In front, straight over the plains, is Kadina, with the Hummocks range be-yond. On the left are the Wallaroo mines, with the Bible Christian and Wesleyan churches showing in the foreground, and the Salvation Army barracks right on the edge of New Town. Looking backwards on the right one sees the stack of old '415' far across the plain, while from the win-dows at the back can be descried away on the top of the hill in the midst of trees the old Doora, and between that and the Kurilla is the old Duryea. The State school, teachers' residence, and Primitive Methodist church are together close by Elder's, just below. Looking to the west, right down the line of lode, is to be seen the smoke of the Wallaroo smelters mingling with the clouds, Duncan's winding shaft being in the foreground, with Taylor's towerinp up behind it, while on the plain to the left are the 80 cottages built by the company, besides 20 others in which their own officers live. Nearer, but to the north of the main lode, is Elder's winding and concentrating plant, operated by separate engines. During the strike Captain Lipson Hancock worked a similar engine to that at Elder's pumping shaft for two and a half months, the other officers taking their share of the operative work. From the pumps water is led by launders on trestles to other plants to be used for ore dressing and steaming purposes. Some is utilised to cool the condenser, and then flows away as the other to the dressing plant and for steam. The rods go straight to Taylor's shaft, but branch to the south-west, and make another turn, one travelling to Office shaft, and the other to the left to Robinson's and Hosking's shafts on the Devon Consols lode beyond the State school. The engine is never idle, except for breakages, and then not more than eight hours can be spared for repairs, so that it is most carefully watched. One of the drivers is Mr. John H. Visick, the secretary of the Wallaroo Mines Institute, who has been doing similar work for 44 years, and who has been engine-driving at Wallaroo since 1860. When he came Kadina was a dense pine scrub, and there were only two pine huts on the mines, the Home, Hughes, and Wombat shafts being the only shafts working, except the Bingo, where the clay used for firebricks has ever since been raised. Captain Enedor Warmington was then in charge, and Mr. John May was the first engineer, Visick's first work being to drive the old engine on Taylor's shaft.

There are seven disused stacks within a mile of Elder's. The mine drain is two miles long and half of it runs underground. Between the Home and the Office shaft is an attle pass at the top of which is a hopper, into which 50 trucks of spoil can be emptied, and the stuff can be let out as needed to fill the old workings. That accounts for the smallness of the skimp heaps as compared with Moonta, where a similar process is not followed to the same extent. The out-put of Wallaroo mines three years ago was only two-thirds of what it is to-day with the same appliances, but everything is now working at its fullest capacity, 2,000 tons of ore a month being turned out now, as against 1,300 or 1,400 tons then. If a breakage occurs all the men work night and day most loyally to repair it, and to get rapidly in operation again. At the Devon concentrators four buddles are treating the slimes and 16 new ones are being erected so as to gravitate the stuff from them to the centre of the present buddles. At the Kurilla mine there are four buddles on the Borlase principle. The slime enters from the outside and trickles to the centre. The outer line of the circle catches the best ore, and the quality grades down to tailings in the centre. The concentrators treat from 500 to 600 tons weekly of vein stuff, and the process of treatment will be described in the article on the Moonta mines. Piles of dressed ore for the smelters are to be seen near the overhead trams, and heaps of concentrates, besides mounds of cracked ore, which is crushed to go through four holes to the lineal inch, and then bagged to go to the smelters. The best ore from the Kurilla mine is 20 per cent, stuff. The mine was bought from the bank in the 1880's, and it has paid handsomely. The ore is tipped over an iron screen or grizzly, formed by a succession of iron bars about 2 in. apart, and the small stuff falls into a big hopper, whence, as required, it drops into an elevator-belt with buckets attached, and is thrown into a cylindrical riddle slightly inclined. What passes through the inch mesh lodges in a large overhead hopper, which is discharged by lifting doors into the railway trucks on the main line, the coarser passing through the centre of the riddle, or trommel, to a wide horizontal belt, on either side of which sit boys who pick out the best ore, throwing it into hoppers below their feet, the poor stuff, or attle, being dropped into a parallel hopper. What passes over the tail goes into another hop-per, and this contains sufficient ore mixed with the vein stuff to be fit for crushing and jigging. This small plant operates all the stuff at the Kurilla mine. It is intended to reproduce it on a large scale at the main shaft, Wallaroo Mines. This will greatly economise the cost of surface dressing. The stuff which passes through the riddle is trucked by a locomotive to a central sizing plant close to Taylor's shaft, where it is further graded, the fines being sent to the jigs to be treated without further crushing, while the coarser up to the size of small hens' eggs are dispatched on railway trucks to the toppings jig-ger at Devon, where by the aid of a machine, having a similar motion to the Hancock percussion jig, but with an especially designed sieve having large valve openings working in a hutch of water, the orey stones are separated in their various grades from the waste stones or dredgework, as the case may be. The dredge is crushed and concentrated afterwards at the ordinary plants. The work is arranged so that as far as possible everything shall be automatic, and when the material does not actually gravitate from one machine to another, it is transferred by sidetipping trucks by the use of a locomotive.

The country rock at Wallaroo is metaphorphic schist, and that at Moonta is of an igneous nature. During March last 800 tons of jigged ore and 1,400 tons of rocks and rough ore were sent from Wallaroo mines to the smelters. Nearly all the Moonta ore has been derived from the concentrating plants during the last ten years. Previously, that is, up to 1890, a certain amount of rock ore was sent, but this is not now available. The output of copper for the smelters has been maintained at practically the same amount from the two mines for 30 years. That means that as the stuff gets poorer more has to be raised, and 200,000 tons have now to be dealt with to produce 4,700 tons of copper. The first shipment of ore raised at Moonta contained 60 per cent, of copper, and so it would only have been necessary then to deal with 8,000 tons of stuff for the same output. From Moonta it takes 50 tons of stuff on the average to produce a ton of copper, while it is often poorer. The varying value of the vein stuff raised is the meter of the price of producing a ton of copper, the cost of pro-duction fluctuating according to the amount of stuff to be raised and its greater or less depth. Last year the business of the amalgamated company resulted in a profit of £28,544, out of which a shilling dividend (£8,000) was paid, the Wallaroo mine fully maintaining its pro-ductiveness. The total working expenses of both mines and the smelters were £252,288 5s. 2d., of which £174,382 6s. 6d. went in wages and £37,910 8s. 5d. in fuel.

Captain Hancock speaks in terms of high eulogium of the faithful and energetic services rendered by the executive officers during the last year. It may be mentioned that among the oldest employes of the company are Mr. J. Butson, senior pitman, who came with the first contingent from the Burra; Mr. James Tamblin, who was present at the opening of the mine, but who was invalided a few months ago; Mr. J. H. Visick, engine-driver at Elder's shaft; Mr. John Clinch, a stoper, who dates from 1860; Mr. John Sincock, who dug the foundation of the first offices, and who is still living in Kadina; and Mr. John Tamblin, an underground miner. At the Moonta Captain Jack Thomas, who has charge of a pare of men at the surface, goes back for over 35 years, and so does Captain Barkla, the oldest underground captain. Captain H. Lipson Hancock himself was born in the manager's house on the Moonta mines 32 years ago.

THE WALLAROO SMELTING WORKS.

The opening of the Blyth to Gladstone railway was properly considered by the residents of tne Peninsula copper centres to be a most important event, for it put Broken Hill into direct communication with the Wallaroo smelters, to which in future many hundreds of tons of silverlead ore will be dispatched each week. Wallaroo has ever since its existence lived upon the smelters, which in their turn rest their prosperity on the Moonta mines, eleven miles to the southward, and Wallaroo mines about six miles to the east. The enterprising rat which unearthed the rich surface lode performed his earthed the rich surface lode performed his earthly mission in 1860, and the original furnace was built on the margin of Wal-laroo Bay in the following year by Sir Thomas Elder, Mr. John Taylor, Mr. R. BarrSmith, Mr. Edward Stirling (all of the then firm of Messrs. Elder, Stirling, & Co.), and Sir Walter Hughes. The Government sold these gentlemen the foreshore of the bay as water allotments, and the pioneer furnace was built at what was then high water mark. Practically the whole of the lands on which the extensive works of to-day are constructed have been reclaimed by the slag from this furnace and those which succeeded it, all the depressions be-ing raised to the level of the high-lying ground which formed the original shore. The earliest stack still stands, and it bears the initials and date-'W.W.H.. 1861.' It is 100 ft. high, and is constructed of fine bricks on a solid foundation, the flue being 15 ft. square, while the walls, which at the bottom are 6 or 8 ft. thick, taper somewhat towards the top. Close by this stack on the town side of the smelters are to be seen some of the old stone buildings which formed part of the head station of Walla Waroo, although the original house was a pine hut. The land occupied by the company aggregates 70 acres, but the property extends along the sandhills towards Point Riley, the line of demarcation being a belt of bushes, while it runs half round the town in the other direction. Road after road has been exchanged with the Wallaroo Corporation, until the company now owns a compact block. Altogether the company own an area of about 210 acres, and the whole of East Wallaroo once belonged to it, but is being sold in allotments to the men working on the smelters. Mr. T. C. Cloud, Associate of the Royal School of Mines, London, and a Fellow both of the Institute of Chemistry and of the Chemical Society, is in charge of the works, and he has 300 hands permanently employed at the smelters, while recently 200 more were engaged on works of construction. His staff consists of Mr. G. C. McMurtry, late of the Adelaide School of Mines, assistant manager; Mr. G. J. Rogers, chemist; Mr. L. Seeger, assayer; Mr. R. Snook, accountant; Mr. F. Stimson, draughtsman; Mr. C. Vollprecht, engineer; Mr. W. Stimson, chief ore foreman and timekeeper; Mr. W. Garland, chief general foreman; Mr. W. Evans, foreman smelter; Mr. John Thomas, foreman refiner; Mr. W. Strongman, foreman engineer; Mr. Horace Stimson, foreman of the gold smelting and silver works; Mr. John Deer, foreman mason; Mr. William Davies, foreman smith; and Mr. George Brock, foreman carpenter. Mr. Seeger, who was a student of the Stuttgart Polytechnic, made the first assays of the ores of both mines, and he has been connected with the smelting staff since its foundation. He has one assistant assayer under his charge. Mr. T. C. Cloud has been in the employment of the company for 30 years, and has had charge for just a quarter of a century, during which time there have only been three serious acci-dents at the works. The smelting works originally belonged to the proprietors of the Wallaroo Mines, while the Moonta were owned by a distinct company, but in 1890 they were amalgamated under the style of the Wallaroo and Moonta Mining and Smelting Company, with a capital of £400,000, in £2 shares. The directors are Mr. James Harvey (chairman), Sir Richard Baker, the Hon. J. L. Stirling, Messrs. T. E. Barr Smith, J. R. Corpe, and W. H. Duncan, the secretary being Mr. D. Davidson. Mr. H. Lipson Hancock recently succeeded his father in the management of the two mines.

Lately it was decided to extend the smelters by the addition of works for treatment of lead and silver ores, and the slag dumps at the north end of the pro-perty have been levelled down to make room for the necessary erections as well as for the railway-line to connect the copper and lead works. The formation of the higher levels for the lead works was begun four years ago. A flue 15 ft. high by 10 ft. wide, and built of slag concrete, runs for a distance of 186 yards from the first 80-ton water-jacket smelter, first in a straight line northward, and then eastward to the new stack. This flue also forms the retaining wall on one side and end for the higher level, the space between it and the flue which takes the fumes from the calcining plant being filled with slag from the copper works. A large chasm, however, still remains to be levelled off as slag from the new leadworks is available. This will be brought up by a lift communicating with the lower floor near the smelter, for which Messsrs. May Bros, of Gawler, and the Moonta workshops have supplied the castings. It is intended to erect three more 80-ton smelters between this one and the sea as the manager's instructions are to prepare for the treatment of 1,000 tons of concentrates weekly. Most of the ore will come from Broken Hill, but some is expected from Tasmania. The blast-pipe, 4 ft. in diameter, runs from the engine-house along the northern wall of the refinery, with which a tunnel communicates, and through this the crude bullion will be taken by means of a tram from the smelters. On the feed floor of the smelters a double tramline runs from the ore, flux, and coke floors. On the level above the feed floor there are to be eight calcining furnaces. They are all on a modified Oxland and Hocking principle, and consist of a revolving iron tube 40 ft. long and 6 ft. in diameter, lined with fire-bricks. There is a fire chamber of fire-bricks in front, and a dust chamber between the furnace and the flue. The calciners are to do the same work as is performed by the Ropp roasters at Port Pirie. A finishing furnace to further prepare the ore for smelting is next to each of the calciners. The coke floors are on the side next the township, the rails being let down so that the top of the truck is level with the surface, while turntables are provided so that it may run across to the smelter feed-floor. The heaps of coke seen about all came from Germany. The limestone and ironstone needed for flux can be obtained locally in large quantities. Close to the new calciners the Wallaroo Superphosphate Manure Company is about to erect chemical works to produce 20,000 tons of phosphates a year. They have leased land from the Wallaroo Company, whence they will obtain sulphuric acid. The phosphate company will spend £7,000 on their works, and the smelting company will have to lay out £20,000 to build the sulphuric acid works adjoining, in addition to the large sum involved in the provision of the new lead works. The refinery is situated on the lower level, next to the smelters, is 130 ft. square, and it contains a softening furnace, a zincing kettle, a refining furnace, and a market kettle, the process ending here, when clean lead has been produced. The crude silver will be sent to the gold and silver refinery previously established. The engine-house, further south, contains one blower, but two others will be erected when the three additional smelters are ready. The 150 horsepower engine here will drive all the machinery connected with the smelters, refinery, calciners, and electric light. It is a compound condensing engine, with an independent condenser, the fly-wheel being 14 ft. in diameter. The walls, as well as the flues, are built of slag concrete in many instances, but some of the buildings are of galvanized iron. At the south of the engine-house steps lead down to a big pump, capable of raising 250 gallons a minute, to supply the waterjackets, the condensers, and the whole of the lead works. Between the refinery and the engine-house, towards the sea, is a chimney 90 ft. high, and having a diameter of 5 ft. at the top. This is built on a solid rock foundation, and will last till the crack of doom. The flues from the kettles and boilers are led into it. West of the engine-house, and very near the sea, are two Babcock and Wilcox boilers, one to work and the other in reserve, each having a pressure of 150 lb. to the square inch. Another pair is shortly to be built. The tramway runs right past the refinery to carry the lead through the works, and a second line extends from the elevator round the sea beach, connecting both sides of the copper and lead works. A tram will also take the copper slag to the spots where it is to be dumped. The amount spent on the silver-lead works to December 31, 1898, was £21,568 2/5, and the total cost involved must be very considerable.

The business of the smelting works comprises several departments, the most important of which is that relating to the extraction of copper from the ores raised from the Wallaroo and Moonta mines and the copper ores purchased elsewhere. Suitable mixtures of these produce the celebrated brand of 'Wallaroo' copper, great care being exercised by exact analysis to ensure an even marketable quality, the capacity of the furnaces being 105 tons of refined copper weekly. Last year 4,355 tons of copper was shipped to London, and 510 tons to Calcutta, while the copper sold in the colonies, including copper in sulphate, reached 110 tons. On December 31 there was on hand in the smelters 592 tons of refined copper and 1,197½ tons in ore, regulus and bluestone. Another department of the works is that in which gold and silver ores are received. Here all but leady-silver ores are treated, as well as gold ores, blanketings, tailings, and concentrates, the plant being equal to the disposal of 200 tons of ore weekly. The department purchases ores offered for sale after they have been most accurately assayed. Argentiferous and auriferous copper ores and leady-silver mattes are dealt with. For the last five or six years sulphate of copper (bluestone) has been manufactured, and the product has secured a large sale for battery purposes, as well as for the use of farmers and fruitgrowers. The works are so laid out that while the furnaces occupy the lower ground, nearest the sea, the ore yard is laid out on a level 25 ft. higher. Sidings are provided, connecting with railway-station, as well as with both the Wallaroo and Moonta mines, the Government jetty at Wallaroo Bay, and the silver mines at Broken Hill. Ore from beyond the sea can thus be run directly from the steamer side into the yards, while from the Barrier it also comes straight to the smelters without transhipment. The ore yards are furnished with bins, sheds, and sampling floors, and for crushing ores and slags there is a plant consisting of a single surface condensing engine, with a 20-in. cylinder, and having a 3-ft. stroke, driving a pair of Cornish rolls, an ore breaker, a raff wheel, screen, and other accessories. An overhead tram, commanding the whole length of the ore yard, leads from the crusher to any point required. The copper smelters are entirely separate from the gold and silver ore smelters, and each has its own ore yard, furnaces, flues, and chimneys. Like Wallaroo itself, the big chimney is so erected that the cardinal points of the compass pass through it diagonally. A brick-making plant is at the south end of the highest level, the fire clay being obtained from Ardrossan, Mount Lofty, and nearer at hand. A very high class of bricks is turned out, and only a certain superfine quality are imported, the output being 70,000 yearly. A small gang of men are always at work, either making or burning the bricks. There is a machine and press for the conventional size, but tiles, key-bricks, and other required shapes are moulded by hand. The long drying shed is near at hand, travelling ropes being arranged to move the bricks from end to end. The burning kilns are at the northern extremity, and here the bricks remain for 16 days at a white heat, afterwards being allowed to slowly cool down. Mr. Cloud reports that this make of bricks stands the heat as well as the best Scotch firebricks. Copper smelting involves the use of heat but little short of that employed for steel smelting, and no colonial bricks except those made at Wallaroo will resist it. Littlehampton bricks are used in the lead works, but they would fuse in the copper turnace. The lime kiln adjoins the brick furnace, for it is found cheaper to burn lime than to buy it. The clay yard is next to the brickmakers, and freestone from Dry Creek is pulverised and mixed with the clay when needed.

All the ore that comes to the smelters contains too much sulphur for economical smelting, and part of it has to be calcined to reduce the sulphur. If it arrives in road metal size, as is the case with some of that sent from Wallaroo, it is treated in kilns, the concentrates being dealt with in mechanical calciners. There are 16 kilns, each holding about 150 tons of ore, where the stuff is kept at a gentle red heat and never allowed to melt. The same holds good in respect to the concentrates, for if they were fused the sulphur would not be driven out. When a kiln is about to be charged the door is bricked up and a layer of wood and charcoal is placed on the floor, the chamber being then filled with ore. Then the fuel is set alight and the fire travels right underneath, so that the sulphur in the whole mass takes fire and burns out of the ore, which then cools down, after which the doorway is opened again and the ore is dug out and shovelled into the trams on the line below, whence it is carried to the crusher. The draught of the kilns is so regulated as to prevent the melting of the mass. These kilns are to be removed to make room for burners suitable for the proposed sulphuric acid works. Right at the north end of the kilns is the original smelting stack pre-viously mentioned, which forms a prominent landmark for miles around. Anything which requires to be crushed, after being weighed, is dumped into a bin situated in a chamber between the two sets of kilns, and is thence trammed into the crusher. Only about 10 per cent, of the ore from the mines comes in road metal size, the rest being concentrates. On the floors north of the stack is emptied the jigged ore from the Wallaroo and Moonta mines, the products of each being kept separate. The sidings are apportioned to gold ore, copper concentrates, and rough copper ores, the yard being laid out on an incline from north to south, so that when the engine takes the trucks to the far end the latter may be dropped down by gravitation to the spot required. The concentrates are run along the platform and are tipped on the intermediate floor, with which the overhead tramway from the delivery side of the crusher also communicates. A stone wall at the north end of the copper works divides them from the gold and silver works, and on the intermediate floors in the latter are to be seen heaps of mundic (iron pyrites) from Wallaroo, iron ore from Moonta, and various copper ores, limestone, and slag for mixing with the gold ores that have to be treated. The purchased ore is delivered from the crusher on a brick floor for sampling purposes on the upper level at the end of the gold works. Of each 30 tons two barrow-loads go to the bins, and the next is wheeled to the sample heap, a 10-ton sample being thus secured, great care being exercised in order to get a true average of this for the assayer. The new lead works are just beyond. Gold, copper, or silver ores are received either by ship or sea from all the colonies, including Tasmania and New Zealand, some gold concentrates coming from Baker's Creek. Where the gold ores are especially rich and the gold free they are put through an amalgamating mill with mercury and the tailings smelted afterwards. Altogether the smelters treat 100 tons of copper ore daily, or 700 tons a week. Some of the concentrates from the copper mines require calcining, while others do not, and they are sorted in those varieties. In the wall of each bin on the intermediate floor are a pair of openings, one being for ore to be calcined and the other for the remainder. There are five bins in the set, one to each calciner, and the ore is weighed into each as it is separated, an account being kept between the smelters and the mines. Every twentieth barrow of each heap (100 tons), into which the ore from the mines is divided, is taken as a sample and assayed for its exact copper contents, 18 per cent, being the average. The rain from the floors runs into a large tank, and this is periodically cleared out so that the ore dust may be collected. The ore requiring to be calcined is carried away by buckets on an endless belt and delivered into the mechanical revolving calciners, which are on the iron floor. The ore which does not require to be so treated is travelled on an endless belt and delivered to an elevator, which also receives the ore flowing in a red stream from the calciners, after the sulphur has been expelled, the two supplies being discharged into hoppers. When ready the hoppers are lowered over the smelting furnace, and the bottom being opened the contents fall into the furnaces, which are at the heat needed for steel melting. Each furnace smelts a 7 ton charge in eight hours. The calciners were made at Moonta mines foundry, and there are a nest of five, each being 40 ft. long. When the hoppers are away filling the furnaces the calcined ore is delivered into bins adjoining the calciners, which are on a platform just above the smelters, of which latter there are six. The shed is 200 ft. long, and a tramway between the calciners and the smelters carries the fuel. The perspective along this line is very picturesque. Three of the smelters have a chimney apiece, and the other three communicate by a flue to a new chimney, while all have been rebuilt within the past seven or eight years. There is no contact between the fuel and the ore, which is dropped into the smelters, so that the flame from the fire at the back may play over the ore and melt it. Inside the ore is bright crimson in hue, melting in bubbles as the heat attacks it, the slag floating on the top in layers like cream on milk. This is skimmed off with rabbles and it runs down launders into sand moulds in front, while the cupriferous material (or regulus) is tapped out of the side. It is of reddish purple in color and is run into 2-cwt. moulds, the copper contents averaging 50 per cent. The slag goes to the dump after being broken up to be examined for traces of copper, and if any are found the lump is put back through the smelter. In the yard near at hand are duplicate roaster furnaces arranged on either side of the enclosure. The product from the smelters is automatically passed to a small crusher, after being hand-broken. This crusher consists of a combined jaw-breaker and rolls, the pulverised stuff being carried to a screen, which lets the fines into a bin and sends the others back to the crusher. The smalls run out of a spout, which is automatically shaken up by a hammer, are picked up by an elevator, and sent down to calcining furnaces, of which there are two, one on each side of the yard. They are similar to the others, and the fiery stream of ore runs from them into another elevator, which delivers it into hoppers, whewce it is automatically carried in travelling hoppers to the different smelting furnaces, of which there are seven, the eastern shed and two bigger ones across the yard. The smaller set each smelt 6 tons in about 30 hours. The heat is very trying to the furnaces, the life of each being about ten years. The roof and down-take last about three years, but the flue has to be renewed every six weeks. The moulds are more carefully made at these furnaces, for the product is 97 per cent, of metallic copper. When melted the slag is drawn off and run into moulds, the sulphur, equal to 20 per cent., going off in the form of gas before the copper is tapped from the side and run into a succession of moulds, the 3-cwt. irregular blocks being cut apart before they cool. When the door of the furnace is open the interior looks like molten sunlight. The bricks of the furnaces which have absorbed the copper are crushed into sand and used as beds for the molten copper, which picks up the particles contained in the moulds. The whole of the product of the roasters passes to the refinery at the south end of the works, where it is treated in two reverberatory furnaces, which extract the last 3 per cent, of the impurities. These furnaces are emptied every 24 hours, and the form in which the copper is ladled after the slag is drawn off depends upon the demands of the customers. Some is run into copper ingot moulds, made on the premises, a block 10 in. by 4 in. by 3 in., and weighing about 14 lb., being turned out. Then some is cast into plates 13 in. x 11 in. by an inch in thickness, for the Indian mints and the Cassapore shell foundry, in India. The plates sent to the European market are 15 in. x 11 in., and of whatever thickness needed, generally about 2 in. At the south of the refinery is the copper store. Shot copper is produced by the molten metal being poured into water, and in this form it is used as alloy in the colonial mints at Melbourne and Sydney, as well as for alloying silver at Port Pine. The shapes the shots assume are most fantastic. There is a duplicate plant for bluestone (sulphate of copper) making, the sheds having slag walls, louvred upper walls, and iron roofs. The copper is dissolved with sulphuric acid in lead-lined boxes 4 ft. square by 5 ft. high, of which six are at work in the house visited. The solution runs out through filters and is fed into 14 heating tanks, where it is brought up to crystallising strength by the heat of waste steam. When at the right strength it is run off into tanks on the other side of the aisle. In each of these tanks lead strips are hung, and the crystals, which grow on these strips, fall off at the slightest touch after the liquid is drawn away and pumped up to be sent through the works again. The crystals after being knocked off are washed and thrown on draining trays, being afterwards spread on trays to dry. Then by an overhead tramway they are brought to the packing-room, where they are sieved, the fine crystals being redissolved, and the crystals are packed ready for market in kerosine boxes, each holding 1 cwt. In this colony the bluestone is used chiefly for pickling wheat, but in New Zealand and New South Wales it is employed as a sheepwash or as a cure for vine disease. The Telegraph Department also uses it for battery purposes. It is valued at £20 per ton, and the average production is from 5 to 6 tons weekly.

The gold gets into the refinery in the form of copper alloy and is finally separated electrolitically into refined gold, silver, and metallic copper. Prior to smelting the treatment is exactly the same as that described in respect to copper, except that gold and poor (3 per cent.) copper ore form a regulus. This is reduced to 97 per cent, stuff, and then, instead of being re-fined by fire, is treated electrolitically in a shed next to the bluestone house, which is on the opposite side of the creek from the office. The gold smelting plant is right at the end next the new lead works. The yard everywhere is undermined with flues communicating with the various stacks.

The assay office and laboratory are at the extreme south near the coal storage yards, where gear is provided to assist in hauling and tipping the coal, of which 700 tons are used weekly. The offices, which were built of stone more than 25 years ago, are isolated on a plot of land near the sea. There is a telephone from the offices, to the assay department, and the electric light is installed over the works. Broad gauge lines run from the jetty, and in the yard Chaplin's locomotives, with upright boilers and vertical engines, are employed. These will draw 40 tons and the first one introduced does the work previously performed by five horses. The assay office is fitted with the ordinary wind furnaces for copper assays at differ-ent temperatures, a regulus being formed prior to its being roasted in the crucible. There are also muffle furnaces for silver and gold assays, the samples being passed through a trapdoor into the laboratory, where between 3,000 and 4,000 separate assays are made during the year. The copper assays are always done electrolitically, a known quantity of ore being dissolved in a beaker, in which is placed a hollow platinum cylinder. A current of electricity is applied to the platinum and this catches all the copper, which is weighed. The evaporations of the different assays are done by means of a steam bath in each of the two rooms, and the same boiler heats the drying oven as well as providing a supply of distilled water, all the fumes being carried away. There are two rooms for general work — a balance room and a room for special work, such as the analysis of copper and silver. There are gas furnaces for determining the amount of oxygen in the copper, and the simpler kinds of glass instruments used on the works are blown by the assayers by means of gasolene and air blasts. Six balances are provided, of which one weighs to a ten-thousandth part of a grain, one to a five-thousandth part, and all the others to a thousandth part. A microscope is provided for weighing gold buttons by mea-suring their diameter, and this is used in the assay of slags from the gold and silver works. In the special room the analyses of the copper and silver are made, a test being made each day of the electric con-ductivity of the copper from each furnace. Assays are made of everything. Copper, gold, lead, zinc, silver, nickel, and bluestone assays being the most common. There is a good library of reference books, and all the appurtenances of the department are most complete.

The successive managers of the smelters since their establisment in 1861 have been Mr. Leyson, Jones, sen., Mr. Leyson Jones, jun., and Mr. T. C. Cloud, the present superintendent. The balance-sheet for last year shows that the working expenses of the smelters for that period were £68,721 15s. 6d., of which £30,137 16s. 2d. went in wages, £12,461 4s. 6d. in machinery, plant, and materials, and £21,066 3s. 3d. in fuel. The total production of the mines last year was 5,106 tons of fine copper, of which 2,615 tons came from Wallaroo and 2,491 tons from Moonta. The cost of producing a ton of copper is set down thus: — Mining, £35 18s. 11d.; smelting, £12 3s. 7d.: ship-ping, 10s. 10d.; interest. 12s. 5d.; and Ade-laide expenses, 9s.; making a total of £49 14s. 9d.

THE MOONTA MINES.

The Moonta mines were discovered in 1861 by Patrick Ryan, a shepherd employed on the Wallaroo sheep run, owned by Sir Walter Hughes, and Ryan's name has been fittingly perpetuated in the town of Moonta by the naming of a chief street in his honor, while 'Ryan's concentrating plant' keeps his memory green on the works. The mines are situated about a mile to the east of Moonta, and a little over three miles from the sea at Moonta Bay, the country in all directions being a limestone flat, which was originally thickly covered with scrub. In fact it is stated that once the two-story offices could not be seen from Captain Hancock's house, which stands but a few hundred yards away on the opposite side of the tramway-line; while an old miner asserts that he had to climb to the top of a tree near Hughes's pumping house in order to discover the position of Hancock's concentrating plant. Yet another miner says that he once lost his way in the scrub between Moonta and the mines. Trees are so scarce today, the country is so flat and open, while the buildings mentioned are so large and prominent, that it is difficult to believe these stories, although it is very evident from the fences round the miners' residences and other outward and visible tokens that ti-tree scrub must once have been very plentiful on the land, whose only covering to-day consists of the countless cottages of the workmen, the capacious churches, the lofty engine-houses, the tall chimney stacks, the bewildering forest of tramway, rope, and pipe stagings, the soaring poppet-heads, and the innumerable mine buildings. All these structures are old and somewhat dingy-looking, but all now in use are kept in thorough working order, and they are capable of dealing with many hundreds of thousands of tons of copper ore yet. The mine office, with its narrow balcony, is in a very central position, not far from the deepest shaft, which, like the chief working at Wallaroo mines, is named after the late Mr. John Taylor. The manager, Mr. H. Lipson Hancock, resides in a large double-storied house, standing in extensive grounds, just opposite, and the busy workshops or the company are so near that the noise of the hammering can be distinctly heard. Taylor's shaft, which descends to a depth of 2,400 ft. on the underlay, is also adjacent to the manager's house. In fact, it passes right underneath, and well on towards the State school. In the introduction to his report on the work for last year, the manager writes:— ' For some time past the relative values of the Moonta and Wallaroo groups of mines have been gradually altering. At the Moonta nearly all the shafts in the western and northern portions have been sunk below the remunerative oreground, and have consequently very much fallen off in their produce as compared with former years. This has necessitated a decreased output of ore from the Moonta, the supplies having largely to be drawn from Taylor's and Warmington's shafts, where the lode-stuff is chiefly low-class dredge. The recent developments in the value of the principal portions of the main lodes wrought at the Wallaroo have, on the other hand, been of a satisfactory character. It has, therefore, been practicable to increase the ore-raising operations at the Wallaroo, chiefly at Office and Taylor's shafts, which have yielded large quantities of ore. This has compensated to some extent for the decline in connection with the Moonta. The workings in operation at Moonta are Taylor's shaft (2,400 ft.), Hughes', Young's, Hogg's, and Wannington' shafts, while tribute workings are in operation at Beddome's, Green's, Prince Alfred's, and Fergusson's shafts. Up to 1890, the date of the amalgamation of the two mines, Wallaroo had produced 491,934 tons of ore, worth £2,229,096, and had paid £430,254 in dividends, while Moonta had produced 545,127 tons, worth £5,113,252, the dividends being £1,168,000. Up to the end of 1897 the two properties in combination raised 226,318 tons of ore, worth £1,876,134, the dividends paid being £104,000. Last year the produce of the Wallaroo mines was 22,792 tons of ore, producing 2,615 tons of fine copper, or 11½ per cent., while the Moonta mines raised 14,609 tons, giving 2,491 tons of copper, or 17 per cent. The realisable assets of the amalgamated company on December 31, 1898, omitting shillings and pence, were stated thus:— Refined copper, £36,308; sold and silver bullion, £2,793; ore and furnace products at mines and smelters, £157,419; copper proceeds not settled for, £16,458; and cash in hand, £120; the total being £213,100 12s. 11d. Against this amount the liabilities, omitting shillings and pence, were — Bank overdraft, £4,449; deposits, £49,174; debentures, £76,700: sundry creditors and unpaid dividends, £2,346; outstanding wages and accounts, £14,989; or a total of £147,659, the estimated surplus being £65,441 5s. Last year's profit was £28,544 10s. 3d. The working expenses for the Wallaroo and Moonta mines and smelt-ing works were £252,286, of which £144,244 went in wages at the mines and £30,137 16s. 2d. at the smelting works, while fuel cost £16,844 at the mines and £21,066 at the smelting works; machinery plant and materials costing £9,678 at the former and £12,461 at the latter. The total working expenses at the mines were £183,564 and at the smelting works £68,721. On the other hand the amount realised for last year's copper, together with the estimated value of the unsold copper, was £296,442. Coming to the figures as to the number of men employed we gain the following details of the wages sheet on December 31, 1898:— Wallaroo mines— 384 miners, 88 mechanics, 44 enginedrivers and stokers, 85 general underground laborers, 140 general surface laborers, 100 youths and boys, with 6 officers, making a total of 847. Moonta mines — 322 miners, 138 mechanics, 47 enginedrivers and stokers, 129 underground and 159 surface laborers, 170 youths and boys, with 7 officers, totalling 972. Wallaroo smelting works — 130 smelters, 62 mechanics, 4 enginedrivers and stokers, 239 surface laborers, 75 youths and boys, with 7 officers, totalling 517. This made a grand aggregate with the four members of the Adelaide office staff of 2,340 persons employed by the company on the date named. The extent of the Moonta mines lease is 2,593 acres, and the present directors of the amalgamated company are — Mr. James Harvey (chairman) , Sir Richard Baker, Messrs. J . L. Stirling, T. E. Barr Smith, W. H. Duncan, and J. R. Corpe, with Mr. David David-son secretary. Mr. H. Lipson Hancock is the mining manager, and Mr. T. C. Cloud the manager of the smelting works. The first chairman of the Moonta company was Sir Thomas Elder, and the suc-cessive secretaries before Mr. Davidson took charge of the amalgamated companies were Messrs. George Boothby, Howell, T. F. McCoull, and Robert Hughes, while the Moonta mines managers have been Captain W. Warmington, Captain H. R. Han-cock, and Mr. H. Lipson Hancock. The chief executive officers of the two mines under the manager are Mr. S. Lathern, senior officer Moonta mines; Mr. G. F. Wyatt, for 30 years accountant at Moonta; and Mr. M. J. Reid, occupying a similar position at Wallaroo mines; Captain J. Pryor, underground officer, Moonta; Captain N. Opie, underground officer, Wallaroo; Captain J. Barkla, for 36 years underground captain at Moonta; Captain Skinner, surface officer at the Moonta for a similarly long period.

There are 45 miles of drives, shafts, and winzes, at Moonta mines, and 25 miles at Wallaroo mines, the vertical depths of the shafts aggregating over three miles in each instance. The grand total is 70 miles, and if the other stopes, with the other workings, were placed in a straight line they would form a tunnel 170 miles long, which would reach from Port Pirie on the north, and pass right through Wallaroo and Moonta mines to the foot of the Penin-sula on the south. There are between nine and ten miles of tramway underground and 12 or 13 miles of railway on the surface at the two mines, while the cost of the machinery and pumping plant now in position exceeded £200,000. The ground stoped amounts to about 2,376,000 cubic feet annuallv, and 200,000 tons of stuff is handled each year, 2,500 tons of slime-ore being produced at Moonta alone, while 25,000 tons of firewood are burnt. The aggregate depth of the main and subsidiary shafts is nine miles. The country rock at Moonta is felsite porphyry, and the lodes underlay more than at Wallaroo, where the country rock is mica and talcose schist. Moonta raises 1,000 tons of ore monthly, averaging from 16½ to 17 per cent., and the Wallaroo mines raise 2,000 tons monthly of all classes of ore, which, from all treatments average 11½ per cent. The smelters turn out 5,000 tons of metal yearly. Mr. Hancock, following the example of his father, always works with sufficient ground opened up to give three or four years' supply of ore in sight. Development is kept ahead of the ore-getting operations, so that the manager may be sure that the ore-bearing ground is ready for stoping, although its exact value cannot be known until it is broken and sent to the surface. Moonta mine has been diminishing in its productiveness and gradually coming to an end for the last ten years, and if it were not for the extent of the workings the manager would not have been able to maintain its output for so long. All that is worked now is dredge (or poor vein stuff), carrying ore throughout the rock, which has to be finely pulverised, jigged, and the slimes buddled. The great feature at Moonta mines is the extent of the dressing appliances, and if they were not of the most efficient and economical character the property could not have been worked so long. The mines are of large area, and at Moonta and Wallaroo (which are 10½ miles apart in a straight line) there are three locomotives kept constantly employed during the daylight, while the rolling-stock amounts to over 200 trucks.

The first long-distance telephone in the colony was that erected between the Wallaroo and Moonta mines. The company's buildings at Moonta mines consist of offices, stores, and 15 or 18 residences for the officers and sub-officers, but at Wallaroo Mines 100 cottages were built when miners were brought from Cornwall to supplement those already on the field. The first ore shipped from the Moonta mines averaged 60 per cent, of copper, which was then at £100 a ton. Taylor's shaft at Moonta is down 400 fathoms in poor stuff, but the biggest body of ore ground is between Taylor's and Warmington's shafts, where there is a poor, hard, dredgy lode, averaging 20 ft. in width, stuff from which is now being treated at the concentrating plants. The usual alternation of the lodes is thus given: — Green chlorides on the surface, with 50 per cent, of copper, then black ore going 50 per cent., followed by the scarce grey ore 75 per cent., with yellow ore some-times 25 per cent, beneath. Next comes purple ore, 50 per cent., after which right down to 400 fathoms (2,400 ft.), which is the deepest shaft in the colony, comes yellow and purple ore, mixed with rock, sometimes 20 ft. wide, and then pinching to 2 ft. or 3 ft. The lodes run north and south, but underlay 2 ft. in 6 ft. towards the west. From the bob platform at Prankerd's enginehouse, which is near the centre of the mines, close by the school, a very comprehensive view can be obtained, and among the smaller houses of the miners can be distinguished 16 churches and one building which has been a church. All of them are large and comfortable buildings, the Wesleyans, Primitives, and Bible Christians being the only denominations represented on the mines with the exception of the Salvation Army. Prankerd's is the centre of a circle having a radius of two miles, which practically takes in all the congeries of settlements. Northward are to be seen the large stacks of Yelta, then come Ballarat Row, East Moonta, Moonta Mines, Hamley, Moonta town across the plain, the Cross Roads near the Yelta railway-station, and then Yelta again. The manager is continually prospecting the leases, with diamond drills, while auger bores are used in surface searchings. The ore being raised at pre-sent is obtained from Hughes's, Taylor's, Warmington's, and Treuer's shafts on the east lode ; Hogg's and Young's shafts, which tap a lode traced to Dominick's shaft; Fergusson's shaft on a separate lode; and Green's and Beddome's shafts, to the extreme south. Most of the ore comes, however, from Taylor's and Warmington's. The oldest shaft is Elder's, which was opened in 1861, but which is now dismantled, the top gear having been taken away. Three or four years ago a subsidence took place near here, and the hole thus caused with the little heap of tailings close by is all that now tells of the first working. Elder's engine is used today to pull the men up from Hughes's shaft, which communicates below with Taylor's and Warmington's. The youngest shaft is Fergusson's, which was sunk 29 years ago.

There are three crushing establishments —Hancock's, Ryan's, and Richman's, the last two of which have buddles for treating the slimes. The pumping of the east lodes are all done by Hughes's engine. Then Hancock's engine empties Green's, Beddome's, and Fergusson s shafts, at each of which, however, there are winding engines, with the necessary headgear. Hogg's, Young's, and Dominick's shafts are drained by Ryan's pumping engines. All the western lodes are comparatively idle, and most of the stuff at Hancock's concentrators come from Taylor' s shafts. The mechanical shops near Hughes's pumping shaft aremost extensive and well equipped. Mr. Charles Hall is in charge of the foundry and brass shop, his staff consisting of 15 men and half a dozen boys. In the moulding department, a stone building 65 x 40 ft., wheels, crusher rolls, pipes for underground and surface pumps, various crushing machinery, and the innumerable things wanted about the mines are cast. Here there are two swing cranes, each capable of lifting 10 tons, which revolve so as to command the whole shop. Three cupolas are available, one of which will smelt 2½ tons an hour and the other 1½ tons, the draughts being supplied by a 30-in. Lloyd's fan. Any casting up to 10 tons can be turned out here. There is a core-drying stove, and the railway trucks run right into the yard from the station. Mr. Albert Brown is the foreman patternmaker. The pattern store consists of two floors and a cellar 70 ft. x 36 ft., and it is crammed with thousands of patterns, the accumulations of 30 years. There are wheels from 6 ft. to 2 in. in diameter, pedestals, all kinds of valves, pumps, and patterns for all sizes of brasses and pipes. Spur wheels 10 ft. in diameter and bevelled wheels up to 6 ft. are to be seen. The fitting shop, 65 ft. x 4o ft., is next the moulder's, and is in charge of Mr. T. Skinner, who has 28 men and boys under him. It is supplied with nine ordinary turning lathes and screw-cutting lathes, and one very large chuck lathe for boring heavy wheels and general chuck work. This can bore a wheel 12 ft. in diameter, and Mr. Skinner has had a casting on it weighing 5 tons, the wheel itself weighing 3 tons. There is a slotting machine with a 12-in. stroke for ordinary work or for cutting key ways, planing, shaping, and milling machines, a traverser for traversing key beds, two ver-tical drills, two Brown's lightning screwing machines, and one of Whitworth's screwing machines, a brass-finisher, and stud lathe. Repairs are never sent elsewhere unless there is no time to do them. Hancock's patent rock drills are made on the premises. These machines, worked by compressed air, have a 5 in. stroke, the rate being between 200 and 300 strokes a minute. It is recorded that 15¾ in. has been bored in solid rock in eight minutes with a 1½ in. bit, and 2 ft. 9 in. in 13 minutes with a 15/8-in. bit. The fitting department has a second shop 80 x 30 ft., detached from the first mentioned. Adjoining is the smith's shop, under Mr. T. Cliff, who joined the employ of the company in October, 1863, and he has 40 men and boys employed. The building is 130 ft. x 50 ft., and it contains a dozen forges for general work, two forges for boiler making, and a tool forge. In another shop are five forges for sharpening the implements of the miners, and behind are two forges for wheelwright's and shoeing work. There are also forges at Green's shaft and at Ryan's. In the smith's shop is a faggoting furnace, where bars 14 ft. long and 14 in. in diameter, or 23 ft. long and 11 in. in diameter, can be dealt with. There are two steam and one belt hammer. The equipment is sufficient to do all work that comes along, and all the shafting needed on the mine for the last 20 years has been made here. In addition to the other appliances there is a furnace for bolt and boiler rivet-making, as well as a shearing and punching machine. Mr. Joseph Honniball has charge of the boiler-making yard behind. He has been in the service 28 years, and has 15 men under him. All 36 boilers now at work at Moonta mines as well as the 26 at the Wallaroo mines, and 12 for the smelters, were made at these shops, which do the repairs for the smelters and the mines. The carpenter's shop is in charge of Mr. Eustace, who constructed the British Broken Hill concentrating plant on the Barrier. The extensive stables at the mines contain between 60 and 70 horses.

On May 1 the Moonta and Wallaroo miners received a 10 per cent, advance of wages, which meant £16,000 a year to the company. Three shifts are worked daily, from midnight on Sunday to 12 p.m. on each following Saturday, the times of changing shifts being 7 a.m., 3 p.m., and 11 p.m.. Night and day is to be heard the sound of the machinery, the rattle of the dredge as it falls from the skips into the trucks, and the whirr of the concentrators. The boom of the blasts is not heard, for that work is going on far below the surface, but in the manager's house the vibration of the charges in Taylor's shaft is felt. Its depth on the underlay is 2,400 ft., or 2,000 ft. ver-tically. The pump at this shaft is worked from Hughes'6 engine, 220 yards south, and a donkey engine there hoists the stuff broken in the bottom of the shaft to the first level (2,280 ft.), where it is shot into an iron skip 8 ft. deep and 2 ft. square, carrying 1½ tons. Hughes's engine has a 60-in. cylinder, with a 10-ft. stroke, and it is the largest on the mine. Here there is an air-compressor engine to work the rockdrills underground. The air is brought up to a pressure of 70 lb. to the square inch, and is then stored in a reservoir, being earned underground in pipes. Hughes's shaft, 1,200 ft. deep, is close by the enginehouse, and it is on the underlay below 420 ft. At Taylor's shalt, 1,000 tons of veinstuff is raised each week, but this is only payable because the lode is so wide. It varies from 8 ft. to 30 ft., the average being 20 ft. The other 1,000 tons crushed and concentrated weekly is distributed as follows : — Warmington's, 350 tons ; Hughes, 250 tons; Hogg's, 300 tons ; and Beddome's, 100 tons. The tributors do the other work, and nearly all employed on Beddome's lode are paid according to the percentage and quan-tity of the ore raised. Some do very well if they get a good 'take,' and as much as £10 weekly has been made for two months by some men. There are about 50 tributors on Beddome's and Young's lodes. Tay-lor's winding-engine is at Prankerd's shaft, 100 yards north. The skip being brought to the top of the poppet heads is emptied from a raised tramway through a screen at the end. The ore is there hand-picked and loaded into iron trucks carrying a ton each, which are drawn by a small locomotive to the crushers, one of which, Richman's, is a quarter of a mile to the north. It has been working more than 20 years, and has a tremendous skimp heap. The man skips are placed one on top of the other, the lower being reached by a stair to the flat below the surface of the shaft. Each carries four men, and there has never been an accident through the rope breaking. Those in Taylor's shaft are worked by Prankerd's engine, which has a 22-in. cylinder, with an 8-ft. stroke. A pile of mallee stumps near by tells of the value which the mines are to the farmers, from whom all available firewood is bought. A succession of engine pools hold the water from the condensers. Nearly all the supply comes from the shafts, though some of the boilers have to use either Beetaloo water or other water specially condensed. About every three weeks the accretions from the mineralised water have to be cleaned off. Hancock's enginehouse and concentrators are on the extreme south of the property, surrounded by mountains of tailings, and on the roof of the highest building is a lookout from which a splendidly comprehensive view can be obtained. The stuff from Beddome's shaft near by is pulled up an inclined plain to the feed floor of the rockbreakers. After negotiating them the stone goes through the rolls, and after being trammelled the fines pass into Hancock's patent jigger. What does not go through the mesh of the trommel is brought up by a raff wheel to the crusher again, the water being obtained from Green's shaft, as Hancock's engine drives the pump as well as the concentrating machinery. From the crusher the stuff runs to the jigger, over the sieve of which is spread three inches of 'ragging,' composed of iron mixed with copper ore. Only the heavy ore goes through this, the waste passing over the end to be thrown on the heap, whereas the good stuff goes through the sieve and the hoppers to the barrows below, and it is wheeled to the floors prior to being dispatched to the smelters. Another jigger takes 1½ in. stuff and separates the good from the bad ore, the good being delivered into bins and re-served for crushing when a sufficient quan-tity accumulates. Then it is sent to the smelters, the wastes being crushed with the roughs and sent through the other jigger. In between these is a smaller jig with a lighter motion, which takes the fine ore and slimes, while the tailings go back through the first jig, the fines being collected in barrows for the smelters. The slimes run into settling pools, and after the sediment is deposited it is taken away to the slime-dressing machinery, the clear water running back at a lower level to be pumped up for use again. The water from the shaft is used when other pools are employed in condensing the steam. The jigs are about 25 ft., long by 3 ft. wide, and there is a slight fall to allow the water to run over them as the sieves are worked backwards and forwards. Near each of the shafts where the men come up in a changing-house, heated by flues, where the wet clothes are put when the men leave work. Beddome's winding-engine is in an iron house close by Hancock's, and the underground workings there are connected with the Hamley mine, not far to the south. At Hancock's there are three Cornish boilers and one Lancashire boiler, the fires being fed with mallee roots. The big heaps of tailings at the Hamley shaft extend to within a few score yards of that from Hancock's.

Richman's crushers, which have an elec-tric light installation, are near Taylor's and Warmington's shafts. The stuff is brought up from the skip in trucks to the height of the second floor, and passes through two sets oi rock-breakers into the rolls, running thence through the trommels. The fines go into the jigs, and the roughs are picked up by a rail-wheel, to be broken again. The rough concentrator next deals with them, and the roughest of the fine ore is pumped up and put through a second concentrator, as at Hancock's. The water flows from these jigs through broad troughs into half a dozen slime pits, the surplus water running off and back to be used again. When one of the pits is full of slime a stream of water is turned on to convey the slime to a Cornish pump, which forces it through a channel to a cylindrical vessel, which acts as a separator. From this one launder below the other leads the slime to four revolving buddles, which are about 24 ft. in diameter and 2 ft. deep, of a concave shape. There are 16 single-deck buddles and two sets of treble-deckers with a wide stretch of staging for the launders and wheels, the whole plant being shut in by Himalayas of tailings. Streams of water pouring over the buddles wash away the waste, the orey slime running into a catchpit, whenice it is pumped and treated the same way again afterwards, when thewaste has all been eliminated, being led into pits and shovelled into heaps for the smelters. The product contains 12 per-cent, of copper. The triple buddles are fed from separators on a platform, these being supplied by an elevator. Mr. W. F. Hall is in charge of these buddles, as well as those at Ryan's, which are not quite so big. In the treble-deckers the fines from each pair of upper buddles goes into the two bottom buddles, the wastesfrom the others going to the skimp heap. The waste from the lowest is returned to the top pair again, and the final product is 12 per cent. stuff, the original dredge being but 3½ per cent. Nothing is wasted. Even the heap of tailings is treated for copper. Water is run on it, and as this percolates through it is caught in wooden, hutches, into which iron is placed to per-cipitatc the copper. This gives a product containing 70 per cent, of copper. Theiron is stirred up two or three times daily, and the flakes of copper which fall off are collected from the bottom of the hutches. There are hundred of thousands of tons of tailings at Richman's, while Hancock's also shows an immense quantity, and thereare lesser heaps at Ryan's.

THE HAMLEY MINE.

The advance in the price of copper has aroused great interest in that metal, and many once-worked mines in various parts of the colony are spoken of as likely to be ?' soon put into operation again. In the Wallaroo and Moonta district there are several of these properties, and the Yelta has just been bought by an English company, who evidently intend to give it previously to the company who have kept resolutely at work on the Hamley mine for years. The Hamley is situated less than a quarter of a mile south of Hancock's crushing plant and of Beddome's shaft, which is the most southerly working of the Moonta mines, and it is under the charge of Captain R. Cowling, whose father was for many years the manager of the company. The property, winch is leased from the Crown, contain six lodes, which strike 12 deg. east of north and have an average underlie of 3 ft. to fathom. They vary generally in width from 2 ft. to 6 it, but is some places the deposits go from 10 ft. to 15 ft. There are nine shafts following the dip of the lode, and the total length of the drives approximates to 3,000 fathoms, while crosscuts have been put in to the total extent of nearly 300 fathoms. The matrix of the ore is quartz, and occasionally portions of bedrock, the walls of the lodes being composed of porphyry. The ore is a chalcopyrite, worth from 20 to 30 per cent., and Bornite, going 50 per cent., the yield being from one to four tons per fathom. The company was formed in 1861, with 20 shares, seven sections west of the Moonta mines being taken up, after which the present property was acquired. In March, 1862, ore was cut near the present shaft, and a second shaft was sunk. Carbonates, with black and yellow ore, were found at 102 ft.; but nothing more had rewarded the miners when a depth of 240 ft. had been reached. At this point the mine stopped work, and when it started again shortly afterwards the name had been changed from the Karkarilla to the Hamley. More than 60,000 tons of ore have been raised from the mine, and £58,899 has been paid in dividends. The capital of the company at present consists of £26,000 in £1 shares, the directors being Messrs. William Hamilton (chairman), George Wilcox, A. M. Simpson, and the Hon. J. H. Howe. During last half-year Captain Cowling delivered to Wallaroo smelting works 203$ tons of gross weight ore (21 cwt. to the ton), the average assay of which was 22 per cent., while on December 31 there was on hand at Hamley eight tons of the same value. The cost of the mine for the six months was set down at £2,542 18s. 8d., and the credit balance at the end of the year was £2,741 Is. Id. There are 45 persons now employed on the mine, of whom 14 men and boys are engaged on the surface, the rest being kept busy in raising ore.

The Hamley mine at present is only being worked for 16 hours of the day, the two shifts in operation being those from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and from the latter hour until 11 p.m. The deepest shaft, which, as previously stated, is only about a quarter of a mile south of the nearest Moonta workings, is 1,050 ft. down, and it is here that the pumping and winding gear, as well as the crushing and concentrating plant and the buddies are situated. A 50-horsepower engine drives all the machinery, and as in the other mines, an indicator in the engine-house shows the exact position of the skip in the shaft, so that the driver can exactly regulate the raising of the ore, as well as the raising and lowering of the men. The ore-skip carries a ton of dredge on each journey, and it takes 20 skiploads of stuff to make up a ton of ore. So, as 50 skips can be raised in eight hours, the produce of ore each shift is 2\ tons. The engine-house was built 20 years ago, on high ground, and from the platform a comprehensive view can be obtained over the plain on which the mining villages are situated. Hamley is on the left, with the terminus of the tramline right in front, and the chapels of Yelta beyond. The steam from the Moonta stacks rises above the heaps of skimpings from Hancock's crushing plant, directly in the foreground, while all about are the tailings and attle from the Hamley itself. About half a mile further south is the old Karkarilla shaft, 540 ft. deep, which has now been full of water for 17 years, the percentage of copper in the lode being very low when it was abandoned. Should it ever be worked again a new shaft will have to be sunk. There is a crusher, and a 45-horsepower engine at the Karkarilla. No. 1 shaft (1,020 ft. deep) at the Hamley mine, which is on Beddome's lode, is 240 ft. north of the Hamley enginehouse, with which its pumping gear is connected by pulley-stands, while No. 2 shaft (720 ft. deep) is about 150 ft. south, and is also worked by the same engine. Green's shaft is 564 ft. to the west on a parallel lode, and likewise running north and south, and it has attained a depth of 420 ft.

The ore skip when it reaches the top of the platform empties automatically after the pin has been knocked out by a man stationed in a convenient spot for that purpose, and the dredge runs into a wagon, whence it is thrown on the floors. Here it is hand picked by boys, and the refuse thrown out, while the good stuff is loaded into trams which run in a cutting bringing their tops just level with the floors. The trucks are then hauled up an incline plane to the crushers. The stuff is thrown in from the top, the larger pieces being cracked by the rock-breakers. The crusher rolls are about 2 ft. in diameter, and they can put through 25 tons in eight hours, the wear and tear on the iron, however, being very great. Such of the pulverised stuff as is fine enough to go through the hurdygurdy runs down a launder, and is taken to the jiggers by means of a bucket elevator, while the larger pieces are again carried by a 15 ft. raff wheel to the rollers to be crushed finer. The small sized stones pass through the grating to the crusher, but the bigger pieces are broken and put through the rock breaker, a second grating being interposed in order to keep pieces of iron which may be split off the breaker from dropping into the rolls. When the dredge is raised it contains 4 per cent, of copper, and this is treated up to 20 per cent., not one-half per cent. of the metal being lost in the process. The concentrators or 'jiggers' used at the Hamley mine are the invention of Captain John Warren, of Block 10 mine, and the late Mr. Fred May, of May Bros., Gawler, with improvements by Captain Thomas Cowling in respect to the plungers and the automatic gear. On the lower side the jiggers are fitted with Captain T. Cowling's automatic gear for opening the valves in succession at one side. The coarse stuff runs through three hoppers at the tail end back to the elevators, which carry it up to be worked over again. From the other three hoppers the finer ore runs into barrows, and is wheeled to the stack ready to go to Wallaroo smelters. It is taken by the Wallaroo and Moonta Mining Company's trucks to the railway-station, the charge for haulage being 2s. per ton. The fine slimes from the jigger and also from the crusher run down channels and are caught in pits, whence as needed they are run into Cornish round buddies, of which there are three, with a diameter of 14 ft. and a depth of 2 ft. They are worked by means of revolving arms, having bags attached, which as the water flows over the slimes, gradually wash the light stuff away to the outer rim of the huddle, the heavier ore settling nearer the centre. When the buddle is full the contents are marked off in circles, and the first 18 in. at the centre weighing about 14 tons, is 20 per cent, stuff, which is emptied and placed on the pile for the smelters. The next 6 in., which is 14 per cent. stuff, is put through the buddle again, all the rest of the contents, about a ton in all, being thrown away. These buddies have been used in Cornwall for over 100 years to treat the slimes from the stampers. There are two buddle pits 3 ft. deep, adjacent to the buddies, and the slimes are worked off alternately. The roughest stuff goes through the first buddle, the medium through the second, and the finest through the third. The waste water from the buddies runs into a cistern in No. 2 shaft, to be used again, being lifted by a Cornish pump. The surplus water runs away over the plain. Adjoining the enginehouse is a blacksmith's shop, with three forges worked by a fan-blast, and a steam hammer, where needful repairs are carried out. A small engine drives' the fan and works two lathes, as well as a drilling and screwing machine in the fitters' shop. In addition to paying nearly £60,000 in dividends over £30,000 has been spent in machinery and plant on the mine. In the carpenters' chop barrows and other woodwork are made, a circular saw, an adzing machine, and a turning lathe being provided. Near at hand is a 10-ton weighbridge. There are three Cornish boilers, of which two are of steel and one of iron, the fuel being mallee roots, supplied by the farmers. Five of the levels from No. 1 shaft join No. 2 shaft, while there is a crosscut to Green's shaft 564 ft. away, and back to Beddome's shaft, on the Moonta mines property. No. 1 shaft is 1,050 ft. deep, and there are 13 levels, exclusive of a short drive at 72 fathoms, while one level runs through from Hancock's shaft to Beddome's shaft on the Moonta mines and thence through No. 1 shaft on the Hamley to No. 2 shaft. The same level also runs 1,800 ft. south. of No. 2 shaft and 540 ft. west of Green's lode, so that it is possible to travel a long distance on the same level. There are many miles of drive* (0 it. x 4 ft.) in the Hamley mine, which, like the Moonta and Wallaroo mines, is now managed by a son of its former superintendent.

THK YELTA MINE, NEAR MOONTA.

Photos.

Young's Engine House and shaft, Wallaroo Mines.

Goodall & Co., Photo. WALLAROO MINES—TAYLOR'S SHAFT IN FOREGROUND.

E. Din-sea, Photo THE WALLAROO MINES, NO. 1.

E. Dm-yea, Photo THK WALLAROO MINES, NO. 2.

E. Duryeu, Photo THE WALLAROO MINES, NO. 3

T. B. Oliver & Ce., Pheto VICTORIA BOTUNDA, KADINA.

THE THE WALLAROO MINES — OFFICE SHAFT.

Oliver t Co., Photo KADINA TOWN HALL, WITH MAYOR AND COUNCILLORS ON BALCONY

WALLAROO MINES — OFFICE SHAFT AND OFFICES.

THE WALLAROO SMELTERS— GENERAL VIEW.

elder's pumping engine wallaroo minks— the biggest in the colony

VIEW OF WALLAROO SMELTING WORKS FROM THE SEA.

Goodall & Co., photo QUEEN SQUARE, MOONTA.

WALLAROO JETTY FROM THE SHORE.

WALLAROO JETTY FROM THE SEA END.

HUGHES' PUMPING ENGINE— LARGEST ON MOONTA MINES.

Bauer & Simmons, photo MR. H. LIPSON HANCOCK, MANAGER MOONTA MINES.

Goodall & Co., Photo DOUBLE SHIFT AT TAYLOR'S SHAFT, MOONTA MINES

VIEW ON MOONTA MINES.

byan's concentrating plant, moonta mines.

richman's, prankard's, and Taylor's headgeab, moonta.

E. Dimjea, Photo ? MOONTA MINES, NO. 1.

RICHMAN'S CONCENTRATES MOONTA

prankard's engine house, moonta

E. Duryea, Photo MOONTA MINES, NO. 2.

Goodall & Co., Photo SKIMP HEAP FROM HANCOCK'S JIGGER, KEAB HAMLKY MINE

HANCOCK'S CONCENTRATING PLANT, MOONTA.

Bauer t Simmons, Pholo MOONTA TOWN COUNCIL.

CAPTAIN R. COWLING, HAMLEY MINE

THE HAMLEY MINE, NEAR MOONTA.

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH JUBILEE..

NEWS FROM THE COUNTRY.

GA1810 - State Records of South Australia

Wallaroo Primary School

Date Range:

1879 - ct Inventory of Series Description

Wallaroo Primary School is situated on Yorke Peninsula and opened in 1879. The 2006 enrolment of the school was 153.

The school was subjected to an arson attack on 14th January 2006. The Department of Education and Children's Services has located approximately 6-10 metres of records (admission registers, school council minutes and school journals amongst others). The condition of the records vary - some are salvageable, others not. The school had gathered all of their historical records together as they are celebrating their 125th anniversary soon - hence the great loss of records. Copies of some of the records had been made but these had been stored with the originals and are most likely destroyed. Some microform copies have been made by various historical groups so these will be valuable to the school.

Those records completely destroyed included admission registers, parent club minutes, school council minutes, financial documents, policies and procedures, staff meeting minutes and agendas, staff diaries and photographs. However, microfiche copies of some of these are still available as a result of a copying project by the local branch of the SA Genealogy and Heraldry Society (SAGHS). In particular, records copied by SAGHS include:

Wallaroo Teachers Association (1901-1908)
Wallaroo Admission Register - Girls (1914-1941)
Wallaroo Admission register - Boys (1914-1943)
Wallaroo School Journal (1937-1971)
Wallaroo Inspectors Book (1913-1927)
Wallaroo Examination Book (1887-1898)
Wallaroo Examination Book (1893-1905)
School Examination Book (1907-1921)

Wallaroo Probus Club has also initiated a project to collect school records from past and present students and their families. Copies of these records will be provided to the school and subsequently transferred to State Records.

Contents Date Range Series Date Range Number of Units Public Access Series Id Series Title

c 1877 - c 1928 c 1877 - c 1928 3 Open GRS/11955 Examination registers [copies]
1904 - 1992 c 1904 - c 1992 1 Restricted GRS/11876 Fire damaged records - Wallaroo Primary School
c 1905 - c 1996 c 1905 - c 1996 2 Part Open GRS/11959 Admission registers [copies] - Wallaroo Primary School
c 1913 - c 1970 c 1913 - c 1970 1 Part Open GRS/11953 Inspector`s registers [copies]
c 1915 - c 2002 c 1915 - c 2002 1 Part Open GRS/11950 Miscellaneous school and administration records [copies]
c 1930 - c 2002 c 1930 - c 2002 2 Part Open GRS/11928 Mothers/Welfare/Parent Club records (copies)
c 1947 - c 1976 c 1947 - c 1976 1 Part Open GRS/11954 School committee records [copies]
c 1949 - c 1984 c 1949 - c 1984 1 Open GRS/11930 Roll books [copies] - Wallaroo Primary School
c 1967 - c 1980 c 1967 - c 1980 1 Restricted GRS/11952 School journals [copies]

GRS/11959 - State Records of South Australia

Admission registers [copies] - Wallaroo Primary School

Date Range Series c 1905 - c 1996 Series in Custody c 1905 - c 1996

Public Access Part Open Consignment Listings Access Determination

Whole of series: Open after 30 years (individuals seeking their own details can have access prior to the 30 years. AD2003/0030. 07/02/2003

Retention Status Permanent. GDS 22 v1: 4.2.1 Description

This series consists of photocopies of fire damaged original records.

The original records were burnt in a fire at Wallaroo Primary School on the 14th January 2006 as a result of an arson attack.

The original records were sent to ArtLab Australia for salvage work and were photocopied during this process.

This series contains copies of the admission registers for Wallaroo Primary School. They provide a record of students admitted to the school in the order of their enrolment. The register lists the student's gender, register number, date of admission, student name, date of birth, church denomination, name of parent/guardian and their occupation, address, last school attended, when left and grade, grade on admission, grade at annual examination, term attendance, date of leaving and remarks which indicate if the student transferred to another school, left or went on to employment.

The register also includes a Register of Teachers in Charge detailing their signature, date of taking charge, date of leaving, from what school transferred and remarks. There is also an Annual Return page which lists the annual number of students who attended, the number of days the school was open and the total number of attendances listed by quarter.

Due to the sometimes indistinguishable nature of the date remaining on the records only circa dates are recorded.

This series is arranged in chronological order (loosely).

Agencies Recording Period Title Agency Id c 1905 - c 1996 Wallaroo Primary School GA1810