Kapunda

History

Francis Dutton and Charles Bagot, who both ran sheep in the area, discovered copper ore outcrops in 1842. They purchased around the outcrop, beginning mining early in 1844 after good assay 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 near the town which provide fine marble ranging from dark blue to white. Marble from the Kapunda quarries was used to face Parliament House in Adelaide, and the pedestal of the statue of Venus on North Terrace, Adelaide is made of Sicilian and Kapunda marble. Ore was initially exported to Swansea 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 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, 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…

Most-observed species

• Pygmy Bluetongue Lizard

  Tiliqua adelaidensis (Peters, 1863) · Squamata
  3,546
• Galah

  Eolophus roseicapilla (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  284
• Crimson Rosella

  Platycercus elegans (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  273
• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  265
• White-plumed Honeyeater

  Ptilotula penicillata (Gould, 1837) · Aves
  189
• Little Raven

  Corvus mellori Mathews, 1912 · Aves
  148
• Noisy Miner

  Manorina melanocephala (Latham, 1801) · Aves
  136
• Red Wattlebird

  Anthochaera carunculata (Shaw, 1790) · Aves
  133

Most recent

• M 3 — 2022-03-29
  3 km ESE of Macclesfield, Australia
• M 4 — 2022-03-05
  3 km SW of Mount Barker, Australia
• M 4.4 — 2020-05-14
  15 km WSW of Burra, Australia
• M 3.2 — 2018-08-08
  11 km WNW of Mannum, Australia
• M 3.9 — 2017-02-01
  9 km NW of Murray Bridge, Australia
• M 3.3 — 2011-10-18
  3 km ESE of Hawthorndene, Australia