Wallaroo. The grand old primary school. First town school opened in 1861. This government school was built in 1877 for 4455 pounds. Interior burnt in fire 2006 and restored.
Wallaroo and Wallaroo Mines. We probably all know that Wallaroo is a contraction of two local Narrunga words meaning “wallabies urine.” But why did Robert Miller, a 19th century gentleman do this? Why not call his run Quandong or some other innocuous Narrunga word? Miller soon sold the leasehold on to Walter Watson Hughes. It was one of Hughes’ shepherds, John Boor, who found knobs of green copper in stone by a wombat burrow on the property in December 1859.( Another shepherd Ryan discovered copper at Moonta.) Hughes soon had the Wallaroo Mine operating using miners from the Burra copper mine by mid 1860. But the Wallaroo Mines were actually located at Kadina. Hughes had the mining rights and became the major shareholder of both the Wallaroo and the Moonta mining companies. He increased his fortune many fold over becoming one of the wealthiest men in SA. He was a great benefactor of the University of Adelaide, hence his title of “the Father of the University “.
But the story of Wallaroo, rather than Wallaroo Mines, is about smelting copper rather than mining it. Wallaroo was and still is a major SA port and so it was logical that smelters be established near shipping. The first shipment of copper left Wallaroo in July 1860; the first shipment of smelted copper left Wallaroo in January 1862. The current Hughes smelter chimney left at Wallaroo was one of thirteen smelter stacks built by the mid 1860s. The largest was 120 feet high. Wallaroo smelters are shown in this photograph from the State Archives dated 1870.
The township of Wallaroo emerged adjacent to the smelters as a government town in 1861 with the first Post Office opening in 1863 and the first school in 1861. A Rounsevell coach service linked Wallaroo with Adelaide via a steamer connection from Port Clinton; the Customs House was open for business by 1862; and a desalination plant was operating by 1862 to provide water for the smelters. (Water was also a problem for the Wallaroo Mines as the watertable was high and necessitated a large pump house to pump water from the deep shafts.) Within a few years, Wallaroo was a significant town. Churches, schools, shops and businesses all made this district the major focus of the state. A number of the streets of the town commemorate the names of major investors in the Wallaroo Mining Company or others involved in copper mining names such as Bagot, Hughes, Hay, Stirling, Smith ( from Robert Barr Smith), Elder, Duncan( nephew of Hughes) etc. Other streets reflecting the Cornish mining and Welsh smelting history of the town include Cornish, England, Scotland, and Wales streets.
In 1890 the Wallaroo and Moonta Mines amalgamated. The combined companies employed on average around 1,900 people a year in the mines and smelters. The peak year for employment was 1906 when the company hired 2,700 men. This followed a disastrous fire in 1904 when the large Taylor Shaft and poppet was destroyed by fire at Moonta Mines. There were three main shafts operating at the Wallaroo Mines by 1906, the Boors, Hughes and Office shafts. Between 1860 and 1923 when the mine closed the Wallaroo Mine alone had produced almost £10,000 million worth of copper and the Moonta Mine had produced over £20,000 million worth of copper. But the industrial story of Wallaroo did not cease with the closing of the mines and the smelters.
Once Professor John Custance of the newly founded Roseworthy Agricultural College (1883) discovered the value of superphosphate fertilizer to wheat yields in SA a new fertilizer industry emerged. By the end of the 1890s when usage of super became more widely practised three fertilizer plants were operating in SA, one at Port Adelaide, one at Torrensville and the last at Wallaroo. The copper smelters at Wallaroo produced sulphuric acid as a by product which was mixed with phosphate rock in kilns to form superphosphate. The Wallaroo Phosphate Company began operations in 1899. From 1899 onwards the main imports at the Port of Wallaroo were coal for the copper smelters and phosphate rock for the fertilizer ovens. (The main exports were copper and wheat.) The Wallaroo Phosphate Company merged with the Mt Lyell Fertilizer Company of Tasmania in 1913. When the copper mines closed down in 1923 the fertilizer works was the main industrial employer in Wallaroo. The company had sulphuric acid railed in from Port Pirie where it was a by product of the silver, lead and zinc smelters of BHP there. In 1965 this company became the Adelaide and Wallaroo Fertilizers Company and later the Adelaide Chemical Company. It eventually became Top Brand Fertilizers in 1980 and continued trading for some years but it no longer operates. Phosphate or guano rock was originally imported from Chile to Wallaroo but after 1907 shipments came from Nauru which is basically a phosphate island! Today phosphate rock is mined within Australia at Mt Isa, the infamous Christmas Island and Wonarah in the Northern Territory.
Some of the old buildings passed on our coach tour of Wallaroo for you to inspect more closely over your lunch break are:
•20 Wildman St. House. This was once the home of Caroline Carleton. She wrote the The Song of Australia in 1859 for a poetry competition in Gawler. She got £10. Carl Linger wrote the music to go with it. Caroline moved to Wallaroo in 1870 to live with her daughter Amy who ran a private school in this house. On a trip back from Adelaide in 1874 Caroline Carleton died at Matta House at Kadina which was probably made available for her to live in by the Wallaroo Mining Company. She was buried in the Wallaroo cemetery and a few years later her daughter moved to Western Australia to live. There is a memorial cairn to Caroline Carleton opposite the current Post Office.
•St. Mary’s Anglican Church built in 1864 in Church St. Its pews and altar joinery are in teak.
•The old Police Station (John Tce) was erected by David Bower again in 1862. It closed in 1972. Note the old cells at the back. A newer Police station was built in the 1940s with a tiled roof but neither is used for policing these days.
•The Old Court House built in 1866 by local builder T. Heath. It was used as the local Court until 1972. For years it was the headquarters of the Wallaroo Band. The Court had to be close to the jetty as many cases involved international sailors who had to be dealt with quickly before they were due to sail onwards.
•Kirribilli House (corner Lydia Tce and Hughes St.) This is not to be confused with Kirribilli House in Sydney, the city residence of the Prime Minister! It too was built by David Bower in 1862, but not for a government or a mine official but for himself. At the rear are old stables and outbuildings.
•Sonbern Lodge in John Tce. It was built in 1914 as a Coffee Palace and Guest House (as a result of the Temperance Movement.) It opened to cater for arrivals on the train opposite. It has been a guest house/ motel for many years.
•The Railway Station. This American designed Art Nouveau station was opened in 1914 the same year that identical stations opened in Bordertown, Tailem Bend and Moonta. There had been a train station elsewhere in the railyards that handled passengers from when the railway to Kadina an Adelaide opened in 1878. When passenger trains ceased in 1969 it became a local Arts and Crafts Centre. Since 1985 it has been a conference centre.
•The Wallaroo Town Hall. This fine two storey Edwardian/Classical style building with a clock tower and spire roof was built in 1902. Unfortunately on 27 December 1917 a fire destroyed the building. A fund to rebuild was started and an identical structure re-opened in 1918. It was at this time that the clock tower and spire were added thanks to a local donor, Councillor Richard Tonkin.
•The current Wallaroo Post Office was erected in 1910 by the SA government although the Commonwealth was by then responsible for post offices. It is in a Georgian style and typical of many post offices of this decade. The last SA government built post offices were erected around 1919.
•Cornucopia Hotel. This amazingly large hotel was built and opened in 1862 and is the only hotel in Wallaroo to maintain its original façade. It is evidence of the high prospects expected of the Wallaroo Mines.
•The Customs House, 1862, built by David Bower at the same time as the government declared the international port of Wallaroo. The first Customs Officer was also the Harbourmaster. Used by SA Customs until 1901, then the Commonwealth Customs until 1920 when it became a private residence. There is no customs service today as the port only exports with no imports. This Georgian style building is on the Register of the National Estate and is a private residence.
•The Hughes Smelter 1861, built with 300,000 bricks standing 36.5 metre high. An inscription on the rear says W.W.H. 1861.
•The current National Trust Museum of Wallaroo was the original Post Office of 1865. It was used as a Post Office until 1910 and then the police from across the street took charge of the building for offices and a residence. The National Trust has owned it since 1975. The Museum covers the Wallaroo Smelting Industry; Caroline Carleton; Nautical History of Wallaroo; early telegraph and telephones; and general Wallaroo history. It opens at 2 pm and has an admission fee.
Wallaroo. The grand old primary school. First town school opened in 1861. This government school was built in 1877 for 4455 pounds. Interior burnt in fire 2006 and restored.
Wallaroo and Wallaroo Mines. We probably all know that Wallaroo is a contraction of two local Narrunga words meaning “wallabies urine.” But why did Robert Miller, a 19th century gentleman do this? Why not call his run Quandong or some other innocuous Narrunga word? Miller soon sold the leasehold on to Walter Watson Hughes. It was one of Hughes’ shepherds, John Boor, who found knobs of green copper in stone by a wombat burrow on the property in December 1859.( Another shepherd Ryan discovered copper at Moonta.) Hughes soon had the Wallaroo Mine operating using miners from the Burra copper mine by mid 1860. But the Wallaroo Mines were actually located at Kadina. Hughes had the mining rights and became the major shareholder of both the Wallaroo and the Moonta mining companies. He increased his fortune many fold over becoming one of the wealthiest men in SA. He was a great benefactor of the University of Adelaide, hence his title of “the Father of the University “.
But the story of Wallaroo, rather than Wallaroo Mines, is about smelting copper rather than mining it. Wallaroo was and still is a major SA port and so it was logical that smelters be established near shipping. The first shipment of copper left Wallaroo in July 1860; the first shipment of smelted copper left Wallaroo in January 1862. The current Hughes smelter chimney left at Wallaroo was one of thirteen smelter stacks built by the mid 1860s. The largest was 120 feet high. Wallaroo smelters are shown in this photograph from the State Archives dated 1870.
The township of Wallaroo emerged adjacent to the smelters as a government town in 1861 with the first Post Office opening in 1863 and the first school in 1861. A Rounsevell coach service linked Wallaroo with Adelaide via a steamer connection from Port Clinton; the Customs House was open for business by 1862; and a desalination plant was operating by 1862 to provide water for the smelters. (Water was also a problem for the Wallaroo Mines as the watertable was high and necessitated a large pump house to pump water from the deep shafts.) Within a few years, Wallaroo was a significant town. Churches, schools, shops and businesses all made this district the major focus of the state. A number of the streets of the town commemorate the names of major investors in the Wallaroo Mining Company or others involved in copper mining names such as Bagot, Hughes, Hay, Stirling, Smith ( from Robert Barr Smith), Elder, Duncan( nephew of Hughes) etc. Other streets reflecting the Cornish mining and Welsh smelting history of the town include Cornish, England, Scotland, and Wales streets.
In 1890 the Wallaroo and Moonta Mines amalgamated. The combined companies employed on average around 1,900 people a year in the mines and smelters. The peak year for employment was 1906 when the company hired 2,700 men. This followed a disastrous fire in 1904 when the large Taylor Shaft and poppet was destroyed by fire at Moonta Mines. There were three main shafts operating at the Wallaroo Mines by 1906, the Boors, Hughes and Office shafts. Between 1860 and 1923 when the mine closed the Wallaroo Mine alone had produced almost £10,000 million worth of copper and the Moonta Mine had produced over £20,000 million worth of copper. But the industrial story of Wallaroo did not cease with the closing of the mines and the smelters.
Once Professor John Custance of the newly founded Roseworthy Agricultural College (1883) discovered the value of superphosphate fertilizer to wheat yields in SA a new fertilizer industry emerged. By the end of the 1890s when usage of super became more widely practised three fertilizer plants were operating in SA, one at Port Adelaide, one at Torrensville and the last at Wallaroo. The copper smelters at Wallaroo produced sulphuric acid as a by product which was mixed with phosphate rock in kilns to form superphosphate. The Wallaroo Phosphate Company began operations in 1899. From 1899 onwards the main imports at the Port of Wallaroo were coal for the copper smelters and phosphate rock for the fertilizer ovens. (The main exports were copper and wheat.) The Wallaroo Phosphate Company merged with the Mt Lyell Fertilizer Company of Tasmania in 1913. When the copper mines closed down in 1923 the fertilizer works was the main industrial employer in Wallaroo. The company had sulphuric acid railed in from Port Pirie where it was a by product of the silver, lead and zinc smelters of BHP there. In 1965 this company became the Adelaide and Wallaroo Fertilizers Company and later the Adelaide Chemical Company. It eventually became Top Brand Fertilizers in 1980 and continued trading for some years but it no longer operates. Phosphate or guano rock was originally imported from Chile to Wallaroo but after 1907 shipments came from Nauru which is basically a phosphate island! Today phosphate rock is mined within Australia at Mt Isa, the infamous Christmas Island and Wonarah in the Northern Territory.
Some of the old buildings passed on our coach tour of Wallaroo for you to inspect more closely over your lunch break are:
•20 Wildman St. House. This was once the home of Caroline Carleton. She wrote the The Song of Australia in 1859 for a poetry competition in Gawler. She got £10. Carl Linger wrote the music to go with it. Caroline moved to Wallaroo in 1870 to live with her daughter Amy who ran a private school in this house. On a trip back from Adelaide in 1874 Caroline Carleton died at Matta House at Kadina which was probably made available for her to live in by the Wallaroo Mining Company. She was buried in the Wallaroo cemetery and a few years later her daughter moved to Western Australia to live. There is a memorial cairn to Caroline Carleton opposite the current Post Office.
•St. Mary’s Anglican Church built in 1864 in Church St. Its pews and altar joinery are in teak.
•The old Police Station (John Tce) was erected by David Bower again in 1862. It closed in 1972. Note the old cells at the back. A newer Police station was built in the 1940s with a tiled roof but neither is used for policing these days.
•The Old Court House built in 1866 by local builder T. Heath. It was used as the local Court until 1972. For years it was the headquarters of the Wallaroo Band. The Court had to be close to the jetty as many cases involved international sailors who had to be dealt with quickly before they were due to sail onwards.
•Kirribilli House (corner Lydia Tce and Hughes St.) This is not to be confused with Kirribilli House in Sydney, the city residence of the Prime Minister! It too was built by David Bower in 1862, but not for a government or a mine official but for himself. At the rear are old stables and outbuildings.
•Sonbern Lodge in John Tce. It was built in 1914 as a Coffee Palace and Guest House (as a result of the Temperance Movement.) It opened to cater for arrivals on the train opposite. It has been a guest house/ motel for many years.
•The Railway Station. This American designed Art Nouveau station was opened in 1914 the same year that identical stations opened in Bordertown, Tailem Bend and Moonta. There had been a train station elsewhere in the railyards that handled passengers from when the railway to Kadina an Adelaide opened in 1878. When passenger trains ceased in 1969 it became a local Arts and Crafts Centre. Since 1985 it has been a conference centre.
•The Wallaroo Town Hall. This fine two storey Edwardian/Classical style building with a clock tower and spire roof was built in 1902. Unfortunately on 27 December 1917 a fire destroyed the building. A fund to rebuild was started and an identical structure re-opened in 1918. It was at this time that the clock tower and spire were added thanks to a local donor, Councillor Richard Tonkin.
•The current Wallaroo Post Office was erected in 1910 by the SA government although the Commonwealth was by then responsible for post offices. It is in a Georgian style and typical of many post offices of this decade. The last SA government built post offices were erected around 1919.
•Cornucopia Hotel. This amazingly large hotel was built and opened in 1862 and is the only hotel in Wallaroo to maintain its original façade. It is evidence of the high prospects expected of the Wallaroo Mines.
•The Customs House, 1862, built by David Bower at the same time as the government declared the international port of Wallaroo. The first Customs Officer was also the Harbourmaster. Used by SA Customs until 1901, then the Commonwealth Customs until 1920 when it became a private residence. There is no customs service today as the port only exports with no imports. This Georgian style building is on the Register of the National Estate and is a private residence.
•The Hughes Smelter 1861, built with 300,000 bricks standing 36.5 metre high. An inscription on the rear says W.W.H. 1861.
•The current National Trust Museum of Wallaroo was the original Post Office of 1865. It was used as a Post Office until 1910 and then the police from across the street took charge of the building for offices and a residence. The National Trust has owned it since 1975. The Museum covers the Wallaroo Smelting Industry; Caroline Carleton; Nautical History of Wallaroo; early telegraph and telephones; and general Wallaroo history. It opens at 2 pm and has an admission fee.