Copper history

Blinman, the highest town in South Australia, came into being in the 1860s, near its copper mine. Today the underground mine is long gone, but tours of its tunnels and relics are always popular. The day’s tours were fully booked out when I was there.

The copper history keeps Blinman alive, and on the 4WD touring schedule, where a stop at the Blinman Pub is mandatory. There is also a bakery; no fuel, but fresh bread?

Even worse than today, the mining practices have left indelible reminders. This is where the molten slurry from the refining process was tipped.

Apart from the tourism generated, the relics of the Blinman mine are not good: slag heaps and the introduced and now feral peppercorn trees.

I only wish the Hunter coal mines were at this stage, but their final voids and overburden mountains will not be so small…

Staying overnight out the back of the pub in their small and basic camping ground, the only one in town, I catch up on my emails.

I swap some books at the Mine Tour office, and visit the surprisingly good Flinders art exhibition in the old town hall, and have a draught Flinders lager at the pub.

But I am waiting for the next day when I can get the key to go inside this small cottage in the main street, right beside the bakery/café. 

Of the regional pug and pine construction, it is different to the one at Aroona in several aspects. The ‘pug’ is made of lime and sand, and strips of hessian have been tacked over that and whitewashed. Internal walls were adzed to give a flatter surface for the hessian.

The higher mansard ceiling would have made it a bit cooler in summer, and there are fireplaces in two rooms for the winter cold. It must still have been less than comfortable!

I keep wondering why domestic buildings were not built of stone more often, as it is so readily available. Rubblestone walls would have to be less arduous than this.

As was the safety custom, with a wood-fired stove going all day, the kitchen is a separate building. Here sheets of tin… from old kero tins?… line part of the walls.

The large stove is a beauty, with a water jacket (right) and two ovens, I wish I’d had it at the Mountain!

Rose Cottage is a restored pug and pine cottage for accommodation rental in Blinman, and it does give an idea of how a fully sealed and whitewashed home must have looked like.

But the highlight of my visit was the old, unrestored 1860s home of the Williams family.

It is a bit of a mess, as many items have been dumped in here. It seems as if they need a museum as well to house the things that I assume folk have donated but which don’t belong in the cottage.

Yet as the lady who was ‘manning’ the art exhibition explained, with gold coin donation entry, they don’t have enough volunteers, so I guess that would apply to any museum.

But given the amount of tourists wandering the short street of Blinman town looking for things to see and do, surely a museum with paid entry would be patronised?

Maybe while they are waiting for the next mine tour, to know more of Blinman than its copper history…