Kanmantoo church which became the school.It was the Primitive Methodist chapel built in 1864.
Kanmantoo - former mining centre on SA Company Land.
When both the Paringa Mining Company and the SA Company applied for the Mt Barker Special Mining Survey in late 1845 the double application was solved by allotting strips of land to each company as shown in the map earlier. The SA Company had sent their geologists to the area to look for copper and they had had some success. William Giles, the SA Company Manager hoped for great success but this eluded the Company. By 1846 the SA Company had a mine site up and working with 25 mainly Cornishmen employed but the high cost of transport to and from Port Adelaide, (£200 a round trip) meant that the mine never made a profit or dividend for the SA Company. The mine also had a problem as the miners at Kanmantoo were paid less than those at Burra and most left anyway for the Victorian goldfields in 1851. Ore was smelted at Callington smelters or at Mr Dawes smelter at Dawesley. Eventually the SA Company sold its land to the Kanmantoo Mining and Smelting Company in 1862. This company only lasted until 1869. The New Kanmantoo Company mined the area from 1869-1874 with the Company mine closing in 1874 but private miners continued working the area for the next thirty years usually employed by Peter Lewis the blacksmith of Kanmantoo. In 1860 and again in 1886 some silver was also found in the mining area at Aclare mine near St Ives but this closed quickly as a company operation but was also worked by individuals until it finally closed in 1912. The village of St Ives, what was left of it, is now under the freeway built in 1977.
But where was the Kanmantoo mine? It was in several satellite villages to Kanmantoo such as ;Staughton near the current freeway; St Ives also near the freeway but on Paringa Mining Company land not the SA Company land; and at Tavistock between Kanmantoo and the Bremer River. So mining was widespread with Kanmantoo in the middle of all the villages. Kanmantoo was the SA Company base with the Company store and other administrative functions there. The other villages lasted from the first mining in 1846 to late in the 19th century by which time they were generally deserted. This was also the period when most of the mining companies sold off their lands for wheat farming. Although Staughton had a Primitive Methodist chapel (1849) for use by the strongly Methodist Cornish miners, Kanmantoo was the town that got most of the necessary public buildings. It was established in 1849 as a town site on the new government road via Callington to Wellington and the Murray River. Within a few years Kanmantoo had 66 houses, two hotels, a Methodist Church built in 1864, a blacksmith and a general store. The Primitive Methodists had built an early chapel in 1847 but all traces of this disappeared quickly when it was replaced in 1864 by a new Primitive Methodist Church. This Methodist church became the town school building which is now the community hall. Kanmantoo School operated from the early years (1857) in several different locations and in 1880 it became a provisional school with government inspections. The Education Department bought the Primitive Methodist Church in 1921 as a state school and we can see where they replaced a gothic church window with a typical school room window in the 1920s. By 1953 the school had a mere 3 students and it was closed by the government. As a community hall it has a problem for table tennis as the floor was designed to slope towards the pulpit at the front!
One year after the Primitive Methodists built their new Kanmantoo Church the more upper class Wesleyan Methodists built a fine church (1865) in Kanmantoo in Cook Street. It still stands and has a façade with unusual brickwork around the window above the door and the bell cover. When the 3 branches of Methodists united in 1900 the Primitives gave up their church, (which eventually became the town school), and the former Wesley Methodist Church became the only Methodist church in Kanmantoo. The last service was held in this building in 1956 and it is now a private house. It should be in the Register of the National Estate in our opinion because of its historical associations with the Cornish miners of Kanmantoo and its unusual architecture.
Primitive Methodist Church later Kanmantoo state school. The Kanmantoo Wesleyan Methodist 1865.
Kanmantoo also had a Catholic Church built in 1858 as some of the miners were of Irish descent. St Thomas Church was L shaped and quite large on Nursery Street. It was during the 1850s that several large Irish Catholic families arrived at Kanmantoo mines. Father O’Brien laid the foundation stone of the Catholic Church in April 1858. As the congregation swelled with additions to the Irish families a new section was added in 1865 to create the current L shaped appearance. St Thomas’ Catholic Church closed in 1956 and was saved from demolition when new owners restored it as a residence. Lutherans in Kanmantoo travelled to St Peter’s Lutheran church in Callington which was erected in 1864. It appears that most Anglicans in Kanmantoo travelled to St James Anglican Church at Blakiston.
Kanmantoo unlike the other villages survived as a rural service centre for the local wheat farmers. The grain was taken to Nairne, not far away for milling. One of the early farmers was Charles Young who had been a surveyor for the Paringa Mining Company in 1856 when it sold off much of its land not considered suitable for mining. He also surveyed Harrogate. Young bought up land from the Paringa Mining Company in 1866 and called it Holmesdale. It was located near St Ives, just outside Kanmantoo. Within a year he had 25 acres under vines which he quickly increased to 40 acres. He established a winery there that operated for many years. He had an arrangement to use the Kanmantoo school children to pick the grapes and he sold most of his wine to England. He became the squire of the district, representing the area in the Legislative Council, in local government as a councillor and he indulged his interests of education, horse racing and Aboriginal welfare. He used to visit Point McLeay Mission (now Raukkan) and he brought back to Holmesdale in 1887 a young 15 year Aboriginal boy called David Unaipon. We now know that Unaipon went on to publish scientific articles, write books, invent a special shearing comb for sheep and he is depicted on the $50 Australian note. When Charles Young died in 1904 his son Harry took over the property and continued his father’s work. He continued to provide a home for David Unaipon who lived on the Young property most of his life; Harry also became a local councillor; he supported horse racing (there is still a Harry D Young hurdles race at the Easter Oakbank races each year) but he pulled out his father’s vines in 1939 and ended the Kanmantoo winery. Harry Young died in 1944.
Another well known one time resident of Kanmantoo was Dame Enid Lyons who went to school there. Her widowed mother, Eliza Tagget, lived in Kanmantoo before going to Queensland and later to Tasmania. It was in Tasmania that Dame Enid Lyons met her future husband Jo Lyons who became Prime Minister of Australia and established the party that later became the Liberal-Country Party of Australia. Apart from famous residents Kanmantoo also has a well known forest plantation. The combined district schools Arbor Day of 1897 was when the plantation to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee on the throne was created. This plantation still stands despite drought and floods. The creeks and the Bremer River have all flooded on a number of occasions. The worse floods were in 1894, 1913, and in 1939 when the Princes Highway to Melbourne was cut. Evidence of the floods is still visible. The flats below Kanmantoo were also used periodically for military camps and training between 1880 and 1939.
In more modern times Kanmantoo has had a mining resurgence. The copper lodes were worked again between 1970 and 1976 yielding 36,000 tons of copper and 9,000 ounces of gold. More recently Hillgrove Resources has restarted the copper and gold mines of Kanmantoo using modern methods of ore extraction. Hillgrove started on this journey in 2004, getting mining leases in 2008 and finally approval to go ahead with the new mine in 2010. After a further year of construction and work the new processing plant was commissioned for work in November 2011. This construction and site preparation phase has cost Hillgrove $121 million. This large open cut mine will have a life of around 6.5 years and Hillgrove expect to extract 20,000 tons of copper and 10,000 ounces of gold. The mine site was employing 150 people, half of the contractors, by the end of 2011. So the original impetus to settlement is once again relevant to the survival of tiny township of Kanmantoo almost 170 years after its founding.
Kanmantoo church which became the school.It was the Primitive Methodist chapel built in 1864.
Kanmantoo - former mining centre on SA Company Land.
When both the Paringa Mining Company and the SA Company applied for the Mt Barker Special Mining Survey in late 1845 the double application was solved by allotting strips of land to each company as shown in the map earlier. The SA Company had sent their geologists to the area to look for copper and they had had some success. William Giles, the SA Company Manager hoped for great success but this eluded the Company. By 1846 the SA Company had a mine site up and working with 25 mainly Cornishmen employed but the high cost of transport to and from Port Adelaide, (£200 a round trip) meant that the mine never made a profit or dividend for the SA Company. The mine also had a problem as the miners at Kanmantoo were paid less than those at Burra and most left anyway for the Victorian goldfields in 1851. Ore was smelted at Callington smelters or at Mr Dawes smelter at Dawesley. Eventually the SA Company sold its land to the Kanmantoo Mining and Smelting Company in 1862. This company only lasted until 1869. The New Kanmantoo Company mined the area from 1869-1874 with the Company mine closing in 1874 but private miners continued working the area for the next thirty years usually employed by Peter Lewis the blacksmith of Kanmantoo. In 1860 and again in 1886 some silver was also found in the mining area at Aclare mine near St Ives but this closed quickly as a company operation but was also worked by individuals until it finally closed in 1912. The village of St Ives, what was left of it, is now under the freeway built in 1977.
But where was the Kanmantoo mine? It was in several satellite villages to Kanmantoo such as ;Staughton near the current freeway; St Ives also near the freeway but on Paringa Mining Company land not the SA Company land; and at Tavistock between Kanmantoo and the Bremer River. So mining was widespread with Kanmantoo in the middle of all the villages. Kanmantoo was the SA Company base with the Company store and other administrative functions there. The other villages lasted from the first mining in 1846 to late in the 19th century by which time they were generally deserted. This was also the period when most of the mining companies sold off their lands for wheat farming. Although Staughton had a Primitive Methodist chapel (1849) for use by the strongly Methodist Cornish miners, Kanmantoo was the town that got most of the necessary public buildings. It was established in 1849 as a town site on the new government road via Callington to Wellington and the Murray River. Within a few years Kanmantoo had 66 houses, two hotels, a Methodist Church built in 1864, a blacksmith and a general store. The Primitive Methodists had built an early chapel in 1847 but all traces of this disappeared quickly when it was replaced in 1864 by a new Primitive Methodist Church. This Methodist church became the town school building which is now the community hall. Kanmantoo School operated from the early years (1857) in several different locations and in 1880 it became a provisional school with government inspections. The Education Department bought the Primitive Methodist Church in 1921 as a state school and we can see where they replaced a gothic church window with a typical school room window in the 1920s. By 1953 the school had a mere 3 students and it was closed by the government. As a community hall it has a problem for table tennis as the floor was designed to slope towards the pulpit at the front!
One year after the Primitive Methodists built their new Kanmantoo Church the more upper class Wesleyan Methodists built a fine church (1865) in Kanmantoo in Cook Street. It still stands and has a façade with unusual brickwork around the window above the door and the bell cover. When the 3 branches of Methodists united in 1900 the Primitives gave up their church, (which eventually became the town school), and the former Wesley Methodist Church became the only Methodist church in Kanmantoo. The last service was held in this building in 1956 and it is now a private house. It should be in the Register of the National Estate in our opinion because of its historical associations with the Cornish miners of Kanmantoo and its unusual architecture.
Primitive Methodist Church later Kanmantoo state school. The Kanmantoo Wesleyan Methodist 1865.
Kanmantoo also had a Catholic Church built in 1858 as some of the miners were of Irish descent. St Thomas Church was L shaped and quite large on Nursery Street. It was during the 1850s that several large Irish Catholic families arrived at Kanmantoo mines. Father O’Brien laid the foundation stone of the Catholic Church in April 1858. As the congregation swelled with additions to the Irish families a new section was added in 1865 to create the current L shaped appearance. St Thomas’ Catholic Church closed in 1956 and was saved from demolition when new owners restored it as a residence. Lutherans in Kanmantoo travelled to St Peter’s Lutheran church in Callington which was erected in 1864. It appears that most Anglicans in Kanmantoo travelled to St James Anglican Church at Blakiston.
Kanmantoo unlike the other villages survived as a rural service centre for the local wheat farmers. The grain was taken to Nairne, not far away for milling. One of the early farmers was Charles Young who had been a surveyor for the Paringa Mining Company in 1856 when it sold off much of its land not considered suitable for mining. He also surveyed Harrogate. Young bought up land from the Paringa Mining Company in 1866 and called it Holmesdale. It was located near St Ives, just outside Kanmantoo. Within a year he had 25 acres under vines which he quickly increased to 40 acres. He established a winery there that operated for many years. He had an arrangement to use the Kanmantoo school children to pick the grapes and he sold most of his wine to England. He became the squire of the district, representing the area in the Legislative Council, in local government as a councillor and he indulged his interests of education, horse racing and Aboriginal welfare. He used to visit Point McLeay Mission (now Raukkan) and he brought back to Holmesdale in 1887 a young 15 year Aboriginal boy called David Unaipon. We now know that Unaipon went on to publish scientific articles, write books, invent a special shearing comb for sheep and he is depicted on the $50 Australian note. When Charles Young died in 1904 his son Harry took over the property and continued his father’s work. He continued to provide a home for David Unaipon who lived on the Young property most of his life; Harry also became a local councillor; he supported horse racing (there is still a Harry D Young hurdles race at the Easter Oakbank races each year) but he pulled out his father’s vines in 1939 and ended the Kanmantoo winery. Harry Young died in 1944.
Another well known one time resident of Kanmantoo was Dame Enid Lyons who went to school there. Her widowed mother, Eliza Tagget, lived in Kanmantoo before going to Queensland and later to Tasmania. It was in Tasmania that Dame Enid Lyons met her future husband Jo Lyons who became Prime Minister of Australia and established the party that later became the Liberal-Country Party of Australia. Apart from famous residents Kanmantoo also has a well known forest plantation. The combined district schools Arbor Day of 1897 was when the plantation to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee on the throne was created. This plantation still stands despite drought and floods. The creeks and the Bremer River have all flooded on a number of occasions. The worse floods were in 1894, 1913, and in 1939 when the Princes Highway to Melbourne was cut. Evidence of the floods is still visible. The flats below Kanmantoo were also used periodically for military camps and training between 1880 and 1939.
In more modern times Kanmantoo has had a mining resurgence. The copper lodes were worked again between 1970 and 1976 yielding 36,000 tons of copper and 9,000 ounces of gold. More recently Hillgrove Resources has restarted the copper and gold mines of Kanmantoo using modern methods of ore extraction. Hillgrove started on this journey in 2004, getting mining leases in 2008 and finally approval to go ahead with the new mine in 2010. After a further year of construction and work the new processing plant was commissioned for work in November 2011. This construction and site preparation phase has cost Hillgrove $121 million. This large open cut mine will have a life of around 6.5 years and Hillgrove expect to extract 20,000 tons of copper and 10,000 ounces of gold. The mine site was employing 150 people, half of the contractors, by the end of 2011. So the original impetus to settlement is once again relevant to the survival of tiny township of Kanmantoo almost 170 years after its founding.