Wallaroo Mines

Eighty-plus years after the abandonment of Wallaroo Mines (Kadina, South Australia), mosses remain the only vegetation at some spots of the site's grounds

Copper was discovered in 1859 on Walter Watson Hughes' sheep run 'Wallaroo' by James Boor, one of his shepherds. Wallaroo Mines developed quickly and, with copper selling for 115 pounds a ton, was prosperous. Hughes established smelting works on the nearby coast and the town and port of Wallaroo was proclaimed in 1861. In 1889, the value of the ores sold from the Wallaroo Mines was nearly around 2.25 million pounds. The Wallaroo Mine lies today on the outskirts of Kadina, established as a town to house the miners. In 1889 Wallaroo and Moonta Mines merged and formed the Wallaroo and Moonta Mining and Smelting Company. The mines closed in 1923, but the town and port of Wallaroo continued, with diverging industries and exports.

Kadina, originally a support centre for the Wallaroo mine is now a major administrative centre for the region of the northern Yorke Peninsula.^[1]

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