Ashmore

This is a subdivision of part of section 78 of Hundred of Kooringa, adjacent to Westbury. It comprises only 14 allotments and has now reverted to farmland.

The available plan of it is hard to read, but appears to bear the date 1859. In 1873 there were two poor quality houses on it.

Manning’s Place Names of South Australia does not suggest an origin for the name, but there is an Ashmore in Dorset.

Though the mine was always called the Burra Burra Mine, Burra as the name for the town was only official from 19 September 1940. The origin of the name is disputed. The original pastoralist, James Stein, had Indian coolies working for him as shepherds and Burra Burra was said to come from Hindustani for ‘great great’ in reference to the creek that ran through the property. Stein came from Scotland where the name also occurs in the Shetland Islands, derived from Old Norman borgarfiord for a fortified hill. In other parts of Australia burra occurs in a number of Aboriginal languages meaning people or tribe. The Hindustani origin seems to be the one most favoured.

Detailed map of Burra Burra Mine

Charleston

A part of section 2070, Hundred of Kooringa was named Charleston by Johann C.C. Meyer who subdivided it in 1859, having acquired the section by land grant in 1853. We have not been able to find a complete map of the subdivision, but there is a partial one from 1882 when the area was brought under the Real Property Act. This shows a truncated grid pattern of streets which were presumably more extensive originally. Only five allotments are marked: 1-4 and 62. In the 1873 assessment there were 2 houses here.

Detailed Survey map of Charleston NW Corner
Courtesy: SA DPTI

This village was laid out on part of section 52 Hundred of Kooringa, contiguous to Lostwithiel, by William Oliver, licensed victualler of Redruth, in 1858.

The name comes from Copperhouse in Cornwall.

It was a simple plan with one street of houses, Alankeen St, extending east-west from the north-south government road. There were 30 blocks and a reserve.

In 1873 there were 14 houses, one of which was probably the former Commercial Inn, and a Primitive Methodist Church.

There was a school which may have utilised the church building as after 1900 the Education Department bought it and modified it for that purpose.

The town slowly declined from the closure of the mine in 1877 to the middle of the 20th Century.

Today two houses remain (left) and the school building, (below).

This was laid out in 1875 on part of section 1 Hundred of Kooringa by the SA Mining Association. It was named after J.B. Graham, a substantial shareholder in the Burra Burra Mine.

It is bounded by Aberdeen to the north and the Burra Creek to the east. The closure of the mine in 1877 meant that it failed to develop. When it was established the Smelters’ Home Hotel already occupied lot 3 and the Mine Hospital was on lot 6. Lot 21 was occupied by the house of the mine accountant Mr Furniss. Roach’s Flour Mill occupied lot 2. New building had to wait till 1924 when the town’s powerhouse was built on lots 8 & 9.

The 1875 petition for a Town Council claimed there were then 5 buildings.

In 1905 E.A. West laid out a new subdivision on the eastern side of the Burra Creek adjacent to Graham. It comprised 75 allotments. This is also referred to as Graham in Council business, but it too failed to attract new housing until the 1920s. Since then it has grown substantially with new housing since 1960 as well.

Thomas William Powell (1806-1891) made a subdivision of part of sections 480 and 2071 Hundred of Kooringa in 1857.

In 1833 he married Rebecca A. Wixen who was born in Hampton in Middlesex in 1810. No doubt the town is named after her birthplace. The Old English ham-tun means ‘home town’.

At one time the town had at least 30 houses, but it was on the outskirts of Burra and beyond the reticulated water supply. It gradually dwindled into a ghost town from the 1960s.

It is now a heritage area owned by the Regional Council of Goyder and is a significant archaeological site.

Allotments are numbered to 55, but despite there being several maps lots 41 & 42 have not been located; there being a large central area where lot boundaries are not known.

The southeast corner is the location for one of Burra’s more important quarries for road and building stone.

The 1873 assessment indicates 20 houses.

The 1875 petition for a Town Council claimed there were then 24. [There is evidence that houses were sometimes divided, so there may not have been more buildings.]

Ruins of Hampton in 2004

Thomas Powell (1806-1891) subdivided section 83 Hundred of Kooringa in 1860.

He migrated from Middlesex in 1849 and named this after Harrow-on-the-Hill in that county. The name derives from hearg-weoh meaning ‘heathen temple’ or ‘shrine of an idol’.

There were only 10 blocks of quite large size: ranging from about 170m x 80m to almost 300m x 120m. There seems to be no evidence that settlement ever occurred and by 1952 the whole area had been claimed by right of possession and was farmland.

Manning cites the Register 1 April 1846, p.2.

‘The directors of the SA Mining Association, who had determined on giving the name ‘Truro’ to a township at the Burra Burra Mine, have since resolved to adopt the very euphonious name of a locality and the town of ‘Coolinga’ is now duly laid out. Mr Crawford of the Hindmarsh Brewery has contracted to erect an inn there on a scale of magnitude not yet attempted in the colony . . . and it is said he will attach a brewery to the new establishment.’

The evidence of the hotel and brewery make it clear that ‘Coolinga’ is in fact a mistake for Kooringa.

The main town adjacent to the Burra Burra Mine was laid out entirely on the SA Mining Association’s property in 1846. The Association did not grant freehold title until the 1870s and this meant that the housing constructed tended to be of poor quality and it also encouraged the proliferation of other subdivisions adjacent to the northern and western boundaries of the company’s property.

The town plan is essentially a grid pattern for the most part. The oldest area lies west of the Burra Creek, but the adjacent area east of the creek is almost as old with substantial expansion to the south east by the 1870s and a small modern extension in the north east corner dating essentially from the 1970s.

The town was built almost exclusively of stone cottages, though initially the miners preferred to live in dugouts in the banks of Burra Creek. These were cooler in summer and warmer in winter as well as being rent-free. The disadvantage came from rather frequent floods and after two disastrous floods in 1851 the company refused to hire anyone living in the creek bank. At its peak at least 1,500 had so lived. It became the civic and commercial centre for all the Burra towns with the commercial core around the roughly triangular shape of Market Square.

The name appears to be derived from the Aboriginal kuri-ngga, meaning ‘in the circle’. The kuri was ‘a dance among the northern tribes, at which the men, ornamented with white stripes or dots on the face and chest, and green leaves around their knees, first form a circle, then stamp with their feet alternately on the ground, while the women sit down and sing.’

Rodney Cockburn, What’s in a Name? Nomenclature of South Australia, 1908, gave the meaning as ‘locality of sheoak’.

The mining company constructed many cottages for its employees. Some of these formed long terraces and the most significant of these, Paxton Square, remain as tourist accommodation. The town is characterised by its many bluestone houses. Though many of the miners’ cottages have been demolished over time, a significant number remain and more substantial stone houses built after 1870 have added to the character of the town. The public buildings, especially the churches, Public School and the Institute (later the Town Hall) are impressive.

In 1873 the assessment suggested there were about 365 houses.

Kooringa, 1872

Kooringa today

The English and Australian Copper Co. Ltd gave this Welsh name to a subdivision of section 2067 Hundred of Kooringa, c. 1851. The name itself means ‘a lake’, the English translation being ‘Loughour’.

There were 44 lots and in 1855 the company brought out Welsh migrants to work in the smelter and created this village. Whether the Welsh colonists actually lived here seems doubtful. There were a number of cottages closer to the smelting works on the company’s lease and by 1873 there were only 5 houses there of which three were occupied by German migrants.

The 1875 petition for a Town Council claimed there were then 6 houses.

Locally the spelling is sometimes Llwchyr.

John Stevens Reed (1806-1872) subdivided this portion of section 52 Hundred of Kooringa, contiguous with Copperhouse, c. 1858. He was a licensed victualler of Aberdeen and named it after his birthplace in Cornwall. The name means ‘place in the woods’ which is rather ironic considering Burra’s surrounding were notorious for their lack of trees.

Like Copperhouse, it has one east-west street, Elizabeth St, running off the north-south government road.

It shared the initial prosperity of Copperhouse and also its ultimate fate.

There were 23 allotments and in the 1873 assessment it had 12 houses, one of which was also a shop, and one hotel.

Today no building remains, but heaps of stones mark some of the house sites.

This subdivision on section 2073 in the Hundred of Kooringa was made by Henry Miller in 1858. It was then described as being bounded ‘on the west by the town of Aberdeen, on the east by the church Glebe and the Wesleyan Glebe and the north by the new townships of Nelson and Yardley. . . . in fact an extension of Redruth . . . the proposed new church and the court house are within a few hundred yards of the township.’

Nelson actually lies a little to the east, while Yardley cannot now be identified at all.

It was advertised for sale in the Register 22 July 1858 and 2 August 1858.

It seems to have been a slightly better sale than others of this period and somewhat more than 25% of blocks seem to have sold.

The 1873 assessment lists 5 houses and while there may have been gains and losses the result has been little difference over the years.

The 1875 petition for a Town Council claimed there were then 6 houses.

Aberdeen in foreground and Millerton in background

Anthony Forster and Samuel Nelson made this subdivision of section 3033, Hundred of Kooringa, with the plan saying it was laid out 9 July 1858. It was offered for sale 30 July 1858 and the Register 6 August 1858 says all but 5 allotments were sold.

The plan shows a strangely shaped town sprawling in a long crescent along the western boundary of sections 3033 and 3039. The southern part is only a couple of allotments deep, but in the north it widens to a small network of streets at a variety of angles. Despite the sales report there is little suggestion that many houses were ever erected. Early assessments show list several houses at Nelson, but as no allotment numbers are given some may have been on adjacent farmland.

The 1873 assessment lists 5 houses at Nelson and one of them has allotment numbers. Ruins today confirm at least three within the town limits. Today it is farmland.

The 1875 petition for a Town Council claimed there were then 3.

Detailed Survey map of New Aberdeen
Courtesy: SA DPTI.

Nevertheless the railway was certainly significant and did soon cause several major developments in New Aberdeen. A flourmill, a new hotel, a large bulk store for S. Drew & Co., importers, extensive stockyards and the steam sawmill etc. of Sara & Dunstan were all a response to the location of the railway.

This is a somewhat mysterious settlement of miners etc. on the southwestern fringes of Kooringa. There are quite a lot of references to people living there, but it does not appear to be named on any map and the Lands Titles Office has no plan of the town. Early council assessments and one or two references in the local paper suggest it occupied section 2264 in the Hundred of Kooringa, but there is a nineteenth century Hundred map showing a pattern of streets on the adjacent section 2267.

In the absence of more explicit information the section 2267 evidence seems most convincing, while anyone living on part of 2264 would most likely have also used the name. The town is on the slopes of Princess Town Hill.

There is a Princetown in Devon which might conceivably have some connection.

The town was surveyed in 1849 around a reserve which housed a police station built in 1847. There were 120 allotments. It is named after its Cornish counterpart. The origin of the name is obscure. It may come from re-druith meaning ‘the Druid’s Town’, or rhe-druth meaning ‘swift stream of the druids, or ridruth, meaning ‘red ford’.

At its sale the representatives of the SA Mining Association forced up prices to an unrealistic level and it therefore failed to get the big head start on its rivals that its early date would suggest, nevertheless it was the centre for government activity as a result of the location of the court and police station. It had three churches and from 1856 the Redruth Gaol was on its northern edge. Despite being available for freehold many of the cottages built were little different from those on the Kooringa leasehold property. The present houses are a mixture of buildings from the 1850s to the present day with some very nice examples of early miners’ cottages among them.

The street pattern is basically a grid but a diagonal road runs from the police station to the gaol site. Another curving road in the north of the plan has disappeared from the map of today’s town.

At the 1873 assessment there were 64 houses with several shops and a hotel.

The 1875 petition for a Town Council claimed there were then 63 houses.

Redruth and Aberdeen

In 1858 Isaac Killicoat (1808-1886) gave this name to a subdivision of section 2071 Hundred of Kooringa. While Roach is a common name in the area, it is probably named after Henry Roach, Chief Captain of the Burra Burra Mine from 1847-1868. Mr Killicoat arrived in SA in the "Abberton" in 1854 to take up the position of manager of the smelter operated by the English & Australian Copper Co. at Burra.

The only available plans for the town come from deeds surrendered when the land came under the Real Property Act. There were allotments either side of a single street, called Killicoat St. The size of the known allotments suggests there might have been as many as 32, but this is conjecture based on very incomplete sketches. Early assessments from the council suggest that at least lots 1,3,5,7,11, 13, 15, 17 & 19 were bought.

The 1873 assessment lists 1 house at Roach Town.

The 1875 petition for a Town Council also claimed there was 1.

About 1859 Richard Goldsworthy (c. 1806-1866), an innkeeper of Copperhouse made this subdivision of section 73, Hundred of Kooringa.

There is a town of the same name in Cornwall.

We know of no evidence for any building on this site in the past and it is presently farmland.

This locality is a valley and farming community along a valley that runs south from Burra a little to the west, roughly in line with Copperhouse etc.

The only services in the area were a Primitive Methodist Chapel (Section 2222) and some tennis courts.

The name is used in England, but whether this is the origin is unknown.

(exact sites & location uncertain)

Like Swansea Vale, this does not seem to have been a subdivision, but as a locality it appears in the early assessment books and is referred to sometimes in the local paper.

From that source it is clear that it applied to the last group of houses as you travel east beyond Redruth along the road to the east. (Well before you reach the junction with the road from Kooringa.) It is a name which was more likely to appeal to people living there thanH the alternative of Snake Gully by which the area is now more generally known. In 1901 three houses were given this address. They are still there.

George Vickery made a subdivision of section 53 Hundred of Kooringa in 1859. On 13 March 1860 he advertised it in the Register as ‘ . . . about one mile from the Burra Burra and Bon Accord Mines, bounded in the south by a direct road to Clare, Riverton, Mintaro and Kapunda, on the north by that to Mt Remarkable. The Great Northern Railway is planned to run close to the south-east boundary.’

It is contiguous to Copperhouse and Lostwithiel and is a common placename in England meaning ‘western fort’.

It is now farmland. A few blocks were sold, but probably only about 17 or so. By 1873 there was one house on lots 230-231 and a Wesleyan Church on 232. These were almost adjacent to Copperhouse and after Methodist union in 1900 the Westbury Church became the Methodist Church, allowing the Copperhouse Primitive Methodist Church to be taken over by the school. It was as often referred to as the Copperhouse Church as the Westbury Church. Neither it nor the house remain.

Section 80 of Hundred of Kooringa was subdivided about 1858 by William Oliver. It lies directly west of Copperhouse and is contiguous to it.

It is presently all farmland and there is no suggestion that it ever had housing on it.

In 1873 the council assessment suggests that 14 allotments of 106 had been bought.

Anthony Forster and Samuel Nelson, having subdivided Nelson on the northern outskirts of Burra, also offered a subdivision of part of sections 2249 and 2250 Hundred of Kooringa, some way to the south.

[The sections have subsequently been renumbered 174 & 175.]

It was offered for sale on 30 July 1858 and the Register 6 August 1858 reports it as being successfully auctioned. By the 1873 assessment there were 2 houses. It is presently all farmland with ruins apparently in the vicinity of blocks 13-14.

This was a private town 16 km north of Burra, laid out by Alfred France in May 1878. The name comes from Henry Bryan, a member of governor Gawler’s exploration party, who was lost in the bush on 15 December 1839. It is in the Hundred of Kingston on part section 75.

It was located to take advantage of the railway then being extended to Hallett. On 30 May 1907 a Government town was added to it and named Mt Bryan East. This led to confusion with the Mt Bryan East that already had a school and church. On 20 February 1941 the Government town became Mt Bryan officially.

The town prospered in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with shops, a hotel, school, an Institute and churches for the Anglicans, Methodists and Catholics, as well as having a railway station with passenger and goods function. Apart from the hotel it is now essentially a small residential cluster.

The Mt Bryan District Council building predated the town and was a couple of kilometres north of it. It is now a heap of rubble, as shown in this March 2001 photo

Soldiers' Memorial Hall

Mt Bryan Hotel

This was not a town, but was the site of a hotel called the Sod Hut Inn on section 21 Hundred of Kooringa. The site was leased by Daniel O’Leary from G.S. Kingston in the 1840s and he purchased the freehold in 1852. Though it may have started out as a descriptive name, the hotel was eventually quite a substantial stone building and was still standing and roofed, though unoccupied, in the first decade of the twentieth century. The proprietors of the inn were:

Daniel O’Leary 1850-1865

T. Hare 1866-1875

John Fradd 1876-1883

This locality is a valley and farming community along a valley that runs south from Burra a little to the west, roughly in line with Copperhouse etc.

The only services in the area were a Primitive Methodist Chapel (Section 2222) and some tennis courts.

The name is used in England, but whether this is the origin is unknown.

Governor Jervois probably honoured a friend or acquaintance by naming this town in the Hundred of Mongolata. It lies 18 km northeast of Burra and was proclaimed on 8 September 1881.

It was offered for sale on 13 October 1881. There is an unused school reserve and an unused cemetery. There was consideration of closing it in 1959, but no action was then taken.

There does not ever seem to have been any building at the site.

Detailed Survey map of Tracy
Courtesy: SA DPTI.