WALLAROO, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

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A key shipping port for the Yorke Peninsula, the former copper mining centre now ships locally grown barley and wheat, processes rock phosphate and manufactures fertilisers.
Location: 154 km north west of Adelaide; 10 km west of Kadina; 18 km north of Moonta.
Origin of name: the Aboriginal name for the area. It was first recorded as the name of a large pastoral station of the 1850s operated by Welsh pastoralist, Walter Hughes.
Brief history: vast copper deposits were discovered by James Boor in 1859. Hughes immediately established Wallaroo Mines which attracted many miners, mainly from Cornwall, England, to work the mines. It is believed that more than a quarter of Cornwall's population migrated to Australia to work its mines during the latter half of the 19th century. Hughes installed a smelter here in 1861. By 1868 over 100 tonnes of copper was being produced per week by a number of smelters around the town. By the late 1920s mining had ceased but the Cornish influence on "Little Cornwall" as the district was known and still remains.
Natural features: Bird Islands Conservation Park; Wallaroo Bay; Pt. Hughes; Pt. Riley; Myponie Point; Wallaroo Flora and Fauna Park.
Built features: grain silos (32 cells) and ship loading facilities; village of Tickera; Coffee Palace (1908); Waterside Workers Hall (1902); Town Hall (1902); Prince Edward Hotel (1864); Masonic Lodge (1914).
Heritage features: Heritage Trail; Cornish miners' cottages; Wallaroo Heritage & Nautical Museum and Lighthouse; Customs House (1862); Yorke Peninsula Rail Preservation Society (Wallaroo to Kadina Railway); Old Post Office (1865); The Assay House (1873); Railway Office (1868); Wallaroo Jetty; Kirribilli House (1862); Court House (1866); Police Station and Residence (1862); The Town Chambers Hall; Weeroona Hotel (1861); Methodist Church (1863); St Marys Anglican Church (1864); Wallaroo Hotel (1862); Hughes chimney stack (1861).