Morphett's engine houses

The Burra Burra Copper Mine (The Monster Mine) was established in 1848 mining the copper deposit discovered in 1845. Miners and townspeople migrated to Burra primarily from Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Germany. The mine first closed in 1877, briefly opened again early in the 20th century and for a last time from 1970-1981. The Burra mines supplied 89% of South Australia's and 5% of the world’s copper for 15 years and the settlement has been credited (along with the mines at Kapunda) with saving the economy of the struggling new colony of South Australia.

The two enginehouses seen here are:

1. (left) Morphett's winding house, built in 1861 to wind rock from Hector shaft, begun in 1858. A 30 inch, 30hp engine with boilers was ordered from Thomas Williams in Devon. Williams actually ordered from Perran Foundry a 30hp rotative beam engine with a cylinder of only 20 inches. The engine house was erected about 300ft from the Hector shaft in order for the boiler house to be shared with Morphett's pumping engine. This had four boilers, to which two more were added for the winding engine. The engine was started in 1861 and was stopped in 1868 when the mine began to convert to opencut operations. It was adapted to drive dressing machinery some 550ft distant via an endless wire rope. A horizontal engine was erected at the dressing plant in 1874 and the winding engine then lay derelict until scrapped in 1916.

2.(right) Morphett's pumping engine house, built in 1858 by Cornish stonemasons Thomas Paynter and Ambrose Harris. It housed an 80 inch Cornish pumping engine purchased new from Perran Foundry which arrived at Burra over a six month period in 1858 with the 15 ton cylinder finally arriving in January of 1859. The engine was started in March 1860 and named after John Morphett, a director of the South Australia Mining Association which owned the mine. Operation of the engine ceased in November 1877 after the shaft had been deepened to the 100 fathom level. It was scrapped in 1916. The engine house was gutted by fire in 1926 but was subject to extensive restoration in 1986 when the upper part of the shaft was also retimbered. It now house an interpretive display relating to the engine and mine.