A short history of mining in Burnside

Glen Osmond, Wheal Gawler & Wheal Watkins

The Glen Osmond mines were the earliest metalliferous mines in Australia. Copper was first discovered in Glen Osmond in 1838 on the land of Osmond Gilles, the pastoralist and first South Australian Colonial Treasurer. This became known as the Glen Osmond mine.  

 ^{In 1849 this smelter was built near Glen Osmond mine. Smelting is the process
of extracting metal from the surrounding ore using heat. It was only used for two years due to
the closure of the mines in 1851. Before 1849, smelting took place at the 1845 smelter in Rundle Street.
Courtesy of National Library Australia 143391297.}

 In 1840 two Cornish miners Thomas and Hutchins discovered silver-lead ore at Mt Osmond. This area soon became the site of the Wheal Gawler mine. Three years later in April 1841 its first shipment, forty boxes of ore, was ready for export to England. This was the first metal ore ever exported from an Australian mine. 

Mining at Wheal Gawler halted in 1842. The mine was then reopened in 1845 under new owners. A number of other nearby mines were later established such as Wheal Watkins, Wheal Hardy and the Eagle. The various mineral deposits that were mined include silver, lead, zinc, copper, gold and bismuth. 

Cornish migrants were considered expert hard-rock miners and were employed at most South Australian mines. Traditional Cornish mining techniques and tools were adopted into the mines of the Burnside region. The Glen Osmond mines also employed German migrants. 

Many mining terms, such as wheal (a mine or place of work), adit (a tunnel for getting access into mine or for draining water), and bal-maiden (unmarried or young woman working in a mine) are from the Cornish language. 

During the gold rush, many South Australian miners left to seek work in Victoria. Along with financial strife, this resulted in the temporary closure of Adelaide’s mines. In the late 20th century some mines were reopened and reworked for varying periods. While the years of operation were limited, the mines provided early settlers with hope in the colony’s future after its rocky economic beginnings.

The Wheal Gawler Historic Site, Wheal Watkins Historic Site and the Glen Osmond smelting chimney were added to the South Australian Heritage Register in 1984.  

Women and mining 

In 19th century Cornwall and Devon, many women worked in mines as bal-maidens. Bal-maidens were a crucial part of the mining process as they worked above ground alongside pickey-boys, who were generally young-to-adolescent boys, to clean and grade the ore before it could be processed. Bal-maidens usually worked from around the age of 8 to 10 until they were married, but some women continued working well into middle-age. 

Towards the end of the 19th century, the numbers of bal-maidens dwindled due to changing attitudes around women in the mining industry. According to historian Philip Payton, bal-maidens were often relatively independent and less reliant on marriage to gain financial security. This may have caused some of the criticism that many increasingly felt towards bal-maidens. 

In South Australia it was less common for women to work as bal-maidens, however, there are some reports of women who worked in the Glen Osmond mines.

On 23 February 1847, a writer for the South Australian newspaper visiting the Glen Osmond mines noted that “at the foot of the hills a number of boys and girls were busy washing and cleaning the ore which was heaped in large quantities”. They also explain that cleaning the ore is important because “it saves paying freight on stones and sand, and it makes the ore very much more valuable”.

Further evidence of this can be found in an article from 2 September 1854, in which the writer estimated that the number of people working in all South Australian mines was around 3000 people, “including men, women and children”.

One source in our local history collection recounts how “operations were carried out in true Cornish fashion and even young girls were employed as ‘bal-maidens’ to wash and clean ore, a Cornish custom that did not last long in South Australia”.

Though women seemed unable to obtain work as bal-maidens in the second half of the 19th century in South Australia, young boys were still employed as pickey-boys. 

^{Example of traditional Cornish bal-maiden dress.}