Kapunda. In 1854 the Irish village of Bakers Flat was established here along the Light River. The river bankk were used for dugout houses in the first years.
Also near St Johns Church and cemetery were the Kapunda marble quarries at Koonunga. These grey marble quarries provided the impressive marble for the South Australian Parliament on North Terrace. The Kapunda Marble and Building Company got the contract to provide the marble and build the western wing of the SA parliament. After some legal difficulties and a restructuring of the company work began around 1883 and was finished in 1889.The company quote for the work without dome or tower in 1883 was over £100,000. 500 tons of lime and 3 million bricks were needed for the structure and Victor Harbor granite was used for the basement. To provide the best marble the company bought new land at Koonunga sections 88, 115 and 116 of the Hundred of Belvidere for £1.145 covering 299 acres. Also in 1883 Robert Barr Smith of Torrens Park House put in an order for Kapunda marble for steps at his mansion and the City of Adelaide ordered 1,000 yards of marble flags for footpaths in Adelaide. During construction of parliament around 100 men were employed in the quarry. In 1886 a dispute on the final cost erupted between the government and the company and the contract was suspended and the quarry closed. After a year or so of negations a new company took veer the supply of marble from the Kapunda quarry and completed the building of parliament house! When the new company took over the quarry several workers’ deaths occurred. As parliament house neared completion the government allowed the Kapunda Marble Company to resume their lands and quarry in 1889. In 1887 the Kapunda Marble Company had won a medal at the Indian and Colonial Exhibition for their marble. The Company auctioned the plant and equipment at the marble quarry in July 1889 and voluntarily wound itself up in September 1893. Today you can still see where the quarry was once worked at Koonunga. It was not until 1936 when Sir Langdon Bonython the owner of the Adelaide Advertiser donated gave £100,000 that work began and the central and eastern sections of parliament house. Different marble quarries around Kapunda were used for the central and eastern sections of parliament house. Thanks to Sir Langdon Bonython’s generous donation the new wing opened in 1939 still in grey Kapunda marble. But the money did not stretch to incorporate the planned central dome above the building.
Not far from the copper mine was a completely Irish Catholic settlement called a clachan at Bakers’ Flat. Susan Arthure researched this Irish settlement through an archaeological survey and reconstructed history for her MA. in archaeology at Flinders University. Her ground breaking study resurrected knowledge of the existence of such a village which had been recorded now as the only clachan village in Australia. Ms Arthure started from some 1920s Kapunda stories about a former Irish village. Her research discovered old photographs of the thatched cottages, and when the land of Bakers’ Flat was sold in 1898 a surveyor was employed to draw a detailed map of the area previously in 1893. This survey map showed the location of houses and other buildings at Bakers’ Flat. The Irish immigrants settled on the lands from 1854 when they came to be copper miners. The village flourished in the 1860s and 1870s with Catholic Church records indicating around 100 families lived at Bakers’ Flat with 250 recorded births up to 1906. The Sisters of St Joseph ran a school at Bakers’ Flat from 1876 to 1882. By 1902 there were only 38 occupied dwellings down from an earlier 100 dwellings. All dwellings were on rented land or more usually on land occupied with no rental paid. After the Kapunda mine closed in 1878 the villagers moved away and the village declined with the last residents leaving the lands in the 1920s. All buildings were then destroyed or rotted away and Bakers’ Flat became a wheat paddock which it is today. The details it must have been to dig and find them. Ground penetrating radar allowed her to eventually located foundations of some dwellings beneath the soil. Her traditional archaeological work revealed the remains of 13 dwellings and over 1,000 objects. The objects included 91 food items like pepper pots and sugar caster, 62 pieces of cutlery, 700 buttons and 12 decorative buckles, 93 jewellery items, 275 coins, 12 ornaments and 29 religious artefacts etc. Some of these mid-19th century items were stunningly beautiful. You can seem photographs of them in her Master’s degree on line at flex.flinders.edu.au/file/ae35c92e-c373-49b6-b8e2-f5c47fb...
To me the four leaf clover decorative buttons, the snake head buckles, the cricket players buckle, the partial male bust, the lily of the valley, the butterfly and the coiled snake broaches and the triple copper horseshoe broach are superb.
Kapunda. In 1854 the Irish village of Bakers Flat was established here along the Light River. The river bankk were used for dugout houses in the first years.
Also near St Johns Church and cemetery were the Kapunda marble quarries at Koonunga. These grey marble quarries provided the impressive marble for the South Australian Parliament on North Terrace. The Kapunda Marble and Building Company got the contract to provide the marble and build the western wing of the SA parliament. After some legal difficulties and a restructuring of the company work began around 1883 and was finished in 1889.The company quote for the work without dome or tower in 1883 was over £100,000. 500 tons of lime and 3 million bricks were needed for the structure and Victor Harbor granite was used for the basement. To provide the best marble the company bought new land at Koonunga sections 88, 115 and 116 of the Hundred of Belvidere for £1.145 covering 299 acres. Also in 1883 Robert Barr Smith of Torrens Park House put in an order for Kapunda marble for steps at his mansion and the City of Adelaide ordered 1,000 yards of marble flags for footpaths in Adelaide. During construction of parliament around 100 men were employed in the quarry. In 1886 a dispute on the final cost erupted between the government and the company and the contract was suspended and the quarry closed. After a year or so of negations a new company took veer the supply of marble from the Kapunda quarry and completed the building of parliament house! When the new company took over the quarry several workers’ deaths occurred. As parliament house neared completion the government allowed the Kapunda Marble Company to resume their lands and quarry in 1889. In 1887 the Kapunda Marble Company had won a medal at the Indian and Colonial Exhibition for their marble. The Company auctioned the plant and equipment at the marble quarry in July 1889 and voluntarily wound itself up in September 1893. Today you can still see where the quarry was once worked at Koonunga. It was not until 1936 when Sir Langdon Bonython the owner of the Adelaide Advertiser donated gave £100,000 that work began and the central and eastern sections of parliament house. Different marble quarries around Kapunda were used for the central and eastern sections of parliament house. Thanks to Sir Langdon Bonython’s generous donation the new wing opened in 1939 still in grey Kapunda marble. But the money did not stretch to incorporate the planned central dome above the building.
Not far from the copper mine was a completely Irish Catholic settlement called a clachan at Bakers’ Flat. Susan Arthure researched this Irish settlement through an archaeological survey and reconstructed history for her MA. in archaeology at Flinders University. Her ground breaking study resurrected knowledge of the existence of such a village which had been recorded now as the only clachan village in Australia. Ms Arthure started from some 1920s Kapunda stories about a former Irish village. Her research discovered old photographs of the thatched cottages, and when the land of Bakers’ Flat was sold in 1898 a surveyor was employed to draw a detailed map of the area previously in 1893. This survey map showed the location of houses and other buildings at Bakers’ Flat. The Irish immigrants settled on the lands from 1854 when they came to be copper miners. The village flourished in the 1860s and 1870s with Catholic Church records indicating around 100 families lived at Bakers’ Flat with 250 recorded births up to 1906. The Sisters of St Joseph ran a school at Bakers’ Flat from 1876 to 1882. By 1902 there were only 38 occupied dwellings down from an earlier 100 dwellings. All dwellings were on rented land or more usually on land occupied with no rental paid. After the Kapunda mine closed in 1878 the villagers moved away and the village declined with the last residents leaving the lands in the 1920s. All buildings were then destroyed or rotted away and Bakers’ Flat became a wheat paddock which it is today. The details it must have been to dig and find them. Ground penetrating radar allowed her to eventually located foundations of some dwellings beneath the soil. Her traditional archaeological work revealed the remains of 13 dwellings and over 1,000 objects. The objects included 91 food items like pepper pots and sugar caster, 62 pieces of cutlery, 700 buttons and 12 decorative buckles, 93 jewellery items, 275 coins, 12 ornaments and 29 religious artefacts etc. Some of these mid-19th century items were stunningly beautiful. You can seem photographs of them in her Master’s degree on line at flex.flinders.edu.au/file/ae35c92e-c373-49b6-b8e2-f5c47fb...
To me the four leaf clover decorative buttons, the snake head buckles, the cricket players buckle, the partial male bust, the lily of the valley, the butterfly and the coiled snake broaches and the triple copper horseshoe broach are superb.