Kapunda is a town on the
Light River near the
Barossa Valley
The Barossa Valley (Barossa German: ''Barossa Tal'') is a valley in South Australia located northeast of Adelaide city centre. The valley is formed by the North Para River. It is notable as a major list of wine-producing regions, wine-producin ...
in
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
. It was established after a discovery in 1842 of significant
copper
Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
deposits. The population was 2,917 at the
2016 Australian census
The 2016 Australian census was the 17th Census in Australia, national population census held in Australia. The census was officially conducted with effect on Tuesday, 9 August 2016. The total population of the Commonwealth of Australia was count ...
.
The southern entrance to the town has been dominated since 1988 by the statue of
Map Kernow ("the son of
Cornwall
Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
"), a traditional
Cornish miner. The statue was destroyed by a fire in June 2006 but was rebuilt.
History
Francis Dutton and
Charles Bagot, who both ran
sheep
Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...
in the area, discovered
copper ore
Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
outcrops in 1842. They purchased around the outcrop, beginning mining early in 1844 after good
assay
An assay is an investigative (analytic) procedure in laboratory medicine, mining, pharmacology, environmental biology and molecular biology for qualitatively assessing or quantitatively measuring the presence, amount, or functional activity ...
results. Mining began with the removal of surface ore and had progressed to underground mining by the end of the year. Copper was mined until 1879. There are also
quarries
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to manage their safet ...
near the town which provide fine
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...
ranging from dark blue to white. Marble from the Kapunda quarries was used to face
Parliament House
Parliament House may refer to:
Meeting places of parliament
Australia
* Parliament House, Canberra, Parliament of Australia
* Parliament House, Adelaide, Parliament of South Australia
* Parliament House, Brisbane, Parliament of Queensland
* P ...
in
Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
, and the pedestal of the
statue of Venus on
North Terrace, Adelaide
North Terrace is one of the four terraces that bound the central business and residential district of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It runs east–west along the northern edge of "the square mile". The western end con ...
is made of Sicilian and Kapunda marble.
Ore was initially exported to
Swansea
Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...
in Wales, but later Welsh smelters migrated to South Australia and the ore was smelted locally by 1851. Typically, the miners were
Cornish, labourers were Irish and smelter specialists were Welsh. Trade and agriculture were Scottish and English.
German farmers and timber cutters at nearby
Bethel
Bethel (, "House of El" or "House of God",Bleeker and Widegren, 1988, p. 257. also transliterated ''Beth El'', ''Beth-El'', ''Beit El''; ; ) was an ancient Israelite city and sacred space that is frequently mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
Bet ...
had already been in the area. Underground mining became more difficult as the mines reached deeper. A steam engine to drive a water pump was installed in 1847, replaced by a larger one in 1851. Mining operations ground to a halt in 1851 with the impact of the
Victorian gold rush
The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia, approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony and an influx of population growth and financial capi ...
, restarted in 1855. In 1865, the mine was leased to a Scottish company which switched to open-cut mining methods and replaced the smelters with a different treatment method (cooking the ore with salt to produce copper chloride). Copper prices fell in 1877 and the mine closed in 1879.

A
railway from Adelaide was opened in 1860, and extended to
Eudunda and
Morgan in 1878.
The
Corporate Town of Kapunda was established in 1865 to form a local governing body for the township and the
District Council of Kapunda was established the following year to govern the surrounds.
The Baptist Church building was constructed in 1866.
Kapunda is known for being the home of Sir
Sidney Kidman
Sir Sidney Kidman (9 May 18572 September 1935), known as Sid Kidman and popularly named "the Cattle King", was an Australian pastoralist and entrepreneur who owned or co-owned large areas of land in Australia in his lifetime.
Early life
Sidne ...
(1859–1935). He was a major cattle pastoralist who at one time owned 68 properties with a total area larger than the
British Isles
The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...
. He held annual horse sales at Kapunda with up to 3,000 horses sold during the week. His house, ''
Eringa'', was donated to the Education Department in 1921, and it was used as the administration building for the Kapunda High School
until it was gutted by fire on the night of 29 March 2022.
Kapunda was home to several notable manufacturers of farm and mining machinery: Robert Cameron, Joseph Mellors, James Rowe and
Adamson Brothers. It was with this last-named company that
Tobias Richards, the founder of,
TJ Richards & Sons one of Australia's largest coach-building firms, started his career.
HB Hawke & Co, began in 1857 and operated under various names. The firm closed in 1983.
In the 1850s Irish mine labourers and their families formed a communal settlement on unused land at Baker's Flat, south of Kapunda and adjacent to the mine, and successfully resisted attempts from the 1870s by the wealthy landowners to evict them. Although it no longer exists, archaeological digs by Flinders University researchers have revealed the remains of the settlement as having had a population of around 500, and being in the form of a traditional Irish
clachan.
Kapunda had a strong Catholic community and Saint
Mary MacKillop
Mary Helen MacKillop RSJ ( in religion Mary of the Cross; 15 January 1842 – 8 August 1909) was an Australian religious sister. She was born in Melbourne but is best known for her activities in South Australia. Together with Fr Julian Teniso ...
visited and established a convent there. St John's Reformatory for Girls operated from 1897 to 1909.
Description

The southern entrance to the town has been dominated since 1988 by the statue of
Map Kernow ("the son of
Cornwall
Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
"), a traditional
Cornish miner. The statue was destroyed by a fire on the morning of 1 June 2006 but has since been rebuilt by its creator, Ben van Zetten.
Today, Kapunda is a producer of
cereal crops, mainly wheat, barley and oats. Value-added services carried out by local industry include stock feed milling and hay processing. Kapunda is a contributor to the wine-growing industry centred in the nearby
Barossa Valley
The Barossa Valley (Barossa German: ''Barossa Tal'') is a valley in South Australia located northeast of Adelaide city centre. The valley is formed by the North Para River. It is notable as a major list of wine-producing regions, wine-producin ...
.
The population was 2,917 at the
2016 Australian census
The 2016 Australian census was the 17th Census in Australia, national population census held in Australia. The census was officially conducted with effect on Tuesday, 9 August 2016. The total population of the Commonwealth of Australia was count ...
.
[
The Kapunda Historical Society runs a museum housed in the old Baptist Church building.][
Kapunda has hosted the Kapunda Celtic Music Festival since 1976.
The town was titled the most haunted town in Australia after a television documentary went to air about this, which led to an increase in the number of tourists that visit the area. The ruins of the Reformatory, located outside the town, were bulldozed for this reason.
The town is close to the historic Anlaby Station with its 23-room homestead, houses, gardens and other buildings on the property, many of which are being restored by its current owners.
]
Climate
Kapunda has a hot-summer mediterranean climate#mediterranean climate ( Köppen: Csa/Csb), with very warm, dry summers and cool, wetter winters. Temperatures vary throughout the year, with average maxima ranging from in January to in July, and average minima fluctuating between in February and in July. Annual precipitation is somewhat low, averaging between 104.8 precipitation days. Extreme temperatures have ranged from on 9 January 1939 to on 9 July 1959.
Historic buildings
Church
The second St Rose of Lima Catholic Church, replacing one designed by Edmund Wright and E. J. Woods built in 1866 and subsequently demolished, was built in 1938, to designs by Herbert Jory in Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...
style, and has been described as "perhaps Jory's Romanesque masterpiece". The Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
-based magazine '' Builder'' commented that "the long narrow window openings, infilled with cast cement grilles, the design of which has an Eastern flavour, are an interesting innovation".
''Eringa''
The house which became known as Sir Stanley Kidman's home, ''Eringa'', was built in 1876 by Alexander H. Greenshields, who named it ''Lanark House'' after his birthplace, Lanark
Lanark ( ; ; ) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located 20 kilometres to the south-east of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton. The town lies on the River Clyde, at its confluence with Mouse Water. In 2016, the town had a populatio ...
, in Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. Greenshields was a prominent citizen, who built up a drapery business and was a member of many local organisations, as well as the municipal council. The grounds and conservatories of Lanark House occupied nearly . Greenshields died in 1897 and Kidman acquired the property around 1900 and used it as his residence,[ naming it ''Eringa'' after one of his properties, Eringa Station. It was damaged by fire in 1902.][
After gifting it to Kapunda High School in 1921, the building was originally used as classrooms, then as the library until 2010, and after that as an administration building. The building was ]heritage-listed
This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and human-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In ma ...
, and in 2011–12 the South Australian Government
The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government or the SA Government, is the executive branch of the state of South Australia. It is modelled on the Westminster system, meaning that the highest ranking mem ...
funded a major refurbishment.[
On the night of 29 March 2022, the building caught fire, having spread from a nearby transportable classroom building. Eighty firefighters from the Metropolitan Fire Service battled the blaze, but were hampered by a limited water supply, and explosions around the building. The walls were left standing, but there was significant damage to the roof. Staff members were "heartbroken". Writer Colin Thiele once described the school as "unique".][
]
Media
Kapunda was home to several newspapers. ''The Kapunda Herald
''The Kapunda Herald'' was a newspaper published in Kapunda, South Australia from 29 October 1864 to 25 January 1951. From 1864 to 1878 the masthead was subtitled ''"and Northern Intelligencer"''. It was published weekly, except for the period F ...
'' (known as the ''Northern Star'' from 1860 to 1863 and the ''Kapunda Herald and Northern Intelligencer'' from 1864 to 1878) was printed in the town until 1951, when it was merged with the ''Barossa News'' to become the '' Barossa and Light Herald''.
Another publication, the ''Farmers' Weekly Messenger'' (4 April 1874 – 27 September 1878) was also printed in Kapunda by Ebenezer Ward. Within a month, in May 1874, it absorbed another Ward newspaper, ''Northern Guardian'' (1 April – 6 May 1874), which itself was a continuation of the ''Guardian and Northern and North-eastern Advertiser'' (19 May 1871 – 28 March 1874) and the short-lived ''Gumeracha Guardian and North-eastern Advertiser'' (19 March 1870 – 20 October 1870).
The North Kapunda Hotel was featured on television show '' Haunting: Australia'', when cast member Allen Tiller, who was a local at the time, requested to producers, Flame Productions, that Kapunda, known as Australia's Most Haunted Town, should be a feature on the show. ''Haunting: Australia'' aired internationally in 2014.
Government
Kapunda is in the state electoral district of Frome
Frome is a single-member Electoral districts of South Australia, electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. It is named after Edward Charles Frome, the third surveyor-general of South Australia. The electorate stretches nor ...
(since the 2020 redistribution) and the federal Division of Barker
The Division of Barker is an Australian electoral division in the south-east of South Australia. The division was established on 2 October 1903, when South Australia's original single multi-member division was split into seven single-member d ...
.
Kapunda hosts the meeting chamber and main office of the Light Regional Council.
Healthcare
The Kapunda hospital is the main hospital in the Light Valley. However, its birthing and emergency services have intermittently been reported as closed for short periods because of COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
Kapunda Homes, a residential aged care facility, occupies an extension wing of Kapunda Hospital.[
]
List of mayors
::Note ''This list currently ends in the 1950s due to the limitations of Trove
Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...
.''
*1865–1866 Dr Matthew Henry Smyth-Blood (c. 1806 – 29 March 1883)
*1867–1868 James Pearce James, Jim or Jimmy Pearce may refer to:
Politics
* James Pearce (American politician) (1805–1862), American senator from Maryland
* James Pearce (South Australian politician) (1825–1904), House of Assembly and Legislative Council member
*Jim P ...
(1825 – 5 November 1904) donated his mayoral allowance to a "bounty fund"
*1869–1870 David Nock
David Nock (20 September 1828 – 16 June 1909) was a member of the South Australian Parliament, remembered for introducing a Bill ("Nock's Act") forcing licensed premises to close on Sundays.
History
Nock was born on 20 September 1828. He arrive ...
(c. 1829–1909)
*1871 John Perry Moyle (c. 1826–1880)
*1872–1874 Richard John Day ( –1916)
*1875–1876 J P Moyle*
*1877 M H Smyth-Blood*
*1878–1880 Joseph Rowett (c. 1825–1898)
*1881–1882 Robert Cameron (c. 1865–1893) founded Vulcan Iron works.
*1883–1885 John Fox Mellor (1841–1914) of Mellor Brothers
Mellor Brothers was a farm machinery manufacturer in the British colonisation of South Australia, early days of the colony of South Australia, founded by Joseph Mellor, and carried on by two of their four sons.
History
Joseph Mellor, his wife Mar ...
, farm machinery makers.
*1886–1887 James Wheatley machinist
*1888–1889 David James
*1890 Thomas David Nock (1850–1922) son of David Nock*
*1891–1892 Alfred Palmer
*1893–1895 William Thomas, foundryworker and bookseller
*1896–1899 Evan James, brother of David James*
*1900 (resigned April) Henry Jackson (c. 1840–1912)
*1900–1905 David James* elected to SA Parliament May 1902
*1906-1907 John Henry Hitchens
*1908–1911 Rees Rees
*1912–1914 Alfred Menhennett
*1915–1916 Samuel Ephraim Hancock
*1917–1918 Thomas Jeffs
*1919–1922 Herbert John Skull
*1923 Henry James Truscott
*1924–1927 Richard Hawke
*1928–1932 Thomas Samuel Davie
*1933–July 1936 William Thomas Truscott (son of H J Truscott*)
*1936–July 1942 Clair Hubert Branson (1886–1967) of Greenock
Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...
, baker in Kapunda from 1917.
*1942–July 1952 Horatio Hildabert Rees (son of mayor Rees Rees*)
*1952 Leslie Noke Tilbrook
*1953– C H Branson*
::*Second entry for this person, see above
Notable people
* Ellen Ida Benham (1871–1917), educationist
* Vivian Bullwinkel
Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Statham, ( Bullwinkel; 18 December 1915 – 3 July 2000) was an Australian Army nurse during the Second World War. She was the sole surviving nurse of the Bangka Island Massacre, when the Japanese killed 21 of her fe ...
(1915–2000), Australian Army nurse, P.O.W.
* Walter Dyer (1882–1965), New Zealand board member and chairperson of many education organisations; born in Kapunda
* Bert Hawke (1900–1986), Premier of Western Australia
* Rosanne Hawke (born 1953), author
* Alice Rosman (1882–1961), writer
* Sidney Kidman
Sir Sidney Kidman (9 May 18572 September 1935), known as Sid Kidman and popularly named "the Cattle King", was an Australian pastoralist and entrepreneur who owned or co-owned large areas of land in Australia in his lifetime.
Early life
Sidne ...
(1859–1935), pastoralist
* Darcie Brown (born 2003), cricketer
Gallery
File:Anglican & Catholic Churches from Gundry's Hill lookout, Kapunda (12).JPG, View of the Anglican and Catholic churches from Gundry's Hill Lookout
File:Kapunda Institute.JPG, Institute and soldiers' memorial hall
File:Open pit copper mine-kapunda south australia.JPG, The main open pit mine, now part of a museum site
File:Kapunda copper mine site 36.JPG, alt=Large cylindrical red brick chimney, cut earth, trees and countryside in background, View of the Kapunda mine site looking east, with the chimney stack in the foreground.
Notes
References
Further reading
*
*Drew, G. J. (2017): ''Captain Bagot's Mine: Kapunda Mine, 1844–1916.'' Published by the author.
*Charlton, Rob (1971): ''The History of Kapunda'' Published by the District Council of Kapunda.
External links
{{authority control
Cornish-Australian culture
Mining towns in South Australia
Mid North (South Australia)
Copper mines in South Australia