Around Australia 2012: Burra SA 17/6/12 to 19/6/12

Well we decided to change our plans again and headed for Burra SA instead of Tanunda SA. Burra is know as a historical town and it’s pretty much on the mark, as you would be hard pressed to find a new building or home there. Most of them were of sandstone construction built around the 1850’s. It used to be a copper mining town. We stayed at the local show grounds. They are very basic with only one shower for everybody.

We would have liked to hire bikes here and ride around to all of the historical sites. The bike hire place didn’t have any kid’s bikes and only 3 normal bikes available anyway. What a joke. So we ended up driving and walking around.

We visited the copper mine. It was initially an underground mine that became an open cut mine in its latter years. The boys were looking forward to exploring the underground mine shafts but due to OHS it is now closed. We also checked out the dugouts where the Cornish miners first set up camp; living in houses dug into the sides of the creek beds. Some were said to have had wallpaper and carpet. They even went to the trouble to white wash the front of the dug outs. Of the 4000 that worked in the mines 1800 of them lived in the dug outs.

Another stop was the Redruth Gaol which originally was a prison and then, at a later date, a girl’s reformatory where it was said that escape was impossible. We then went on to read about all of the successful escapes. The girls where cunning and resourceful and got up to all sorts of mischief. Doug’s says it seems nothing has changed. The gaol was also used in the movie Breaker Morant. I’ve started a list of all the Australian movies that I want to watch that are associated with the places we have visited on this trip. That’s another one to add to my list.