During a visit in October 1845 to Burra by
Henry Ayers and the
directors of SAMA the site of the township of Kooringa was chosen.
George Strickland Kingston surveyed and laid out the township, completing it in April 1846, and named many of the streets after directors of SAMA. From the beginning the township was a
company town, built at low cost and with insufficient housing, which forced many miners to dig makeshift homes. s along the creek, used by a third of the population in 1851 In the
census of 1851 over a third of the population were living along the creek and the census compiler took time to note:"There are no houses, the dwellings being excavated in the banks of the Burra Creek." Largely due to the company nature of the settlement, development was slow, with the first
bank not opening until 1859. Until the
National Bank established the first branch in Kooringa, most exchange was either in the form of company
scrip or at shops operating as
money exchanges. All towns, except Kooringa, were built outside the mining lease but were still close to the mine as it was at the northern edge of the lease. The formation of the townships was forced by the refusal of SAMA to grant any freeholds within Kooringa, so miners began moving into other townships from the end of 1849. During their early lives, each of the townships largely had their own
hotels,
churches,
post offices, schools, and shops and identity. In 1851 the
gold rush near
Bathurst, New South Wales, emptied the town of many miners. Whole families,
government officials and other townspeople left for the gold fields and by 1854 the town appeared largely deserted. The number of townships increased dramatically as a result of an 1858 proposal to extend a
railway line from
Gawler. When the railway failed to be built most of the new townships failed and, in 1876, the remaining townships formed the Corporation of Burra. In September 1846 the townships had their first
police force with the movement of four
constables from Julia Creek to the south into temporary accommodation provided by SAMA. Permanent lockup cells and stables were completed in Redruth mid-1847. In September that year, William Lang was appointed resident
magistrate and
coroner for the Murray District and initially housed in a company cottage in Kooringa. The first hotel was a temporary wooden structure erected at the entrance to the township of Kooringa in mid-1846, and the first permanent hotel was the Burra Hotel (opened 25 September 1847) built by
William Paxton, a SAMA director and original owner of
Ayers House. The Burra Hotel became the town's first
public hospital in 1878 and was demolished in 1968. Burra's first parliamentary representative was
George Strickland "Paddy" Kingston who was elected in 1851 to the first
legislative council as member for Burra and
Clare, and for the same area to the
house of assembly in its first parliament of 1857.
Piped water was supplied from 1884 from the flooded and abandoned Bon Accord Mine with water reaching 100 houses by 1885. This was the primary source for Burra until 1966 when it was replaced with water piped from the
Murray River. The Burra received its first supply of
electricity on 27 March 1924 from the newly formed Burra electric supply company. Burra's population has declined from a peak of 5,000 in 1851 to a present figure of approximately 1,000 in 1986. The dramatic decrease at the end of mining inhibited expansion and helped preserve many of the original buildings and houses.
Governance and townships The District Council of Burra was proclaimed in 1872, the Town Corporation in 1876 and in 1969 the District Council and Town Corporation were amalgamated. The townships of Copperhouse, Hampton, and Nelson were not included in the 1940 proclamation forming the town of Burra, as they had become
ghost towns. Other townships that either never succeeded or had been abandoned by 1940 were Princesstown, Lostwithiel, Westbury, Roachtown, Yarwood, Millertown, Warrapoota and Clonmel.
Redruth Redruth was a government township formed in 1850 to break SAMA's monopoly. It is named after
Redruth in
Cornwall and its streets are named after Cornish
mining towns. The township was the site of all original government buildings (
courthouse,
jail and
police station). The courthouse was erected in 1857, and
Redruth Gaol, built in 1856, was the first country jail in South Australia. From 1897 to 1922, the jail was used as a girls'
reformatory. SAMA delayed building in Redruth when they bought 77 of the 120 lots on offer at the initial land
auction, paying almost 20 times the overall reserve price.
Kooringa Kooringa was the first company township in Australia Smelting was reported to be in operation by May 1849.
Aberdeen and New Aberdeen In 1846 a group of speculators from Scotland formed the Bon Accord Mining Company, purchasing a section of land on the northern boundary of the special survey, hoping that the ore body extended under the boundary. Due to the lack of success in mining company, land near the mine was
subdivided in 1849 forming Aberdeen (named after the east coastal city of
Aberdeen in
Scotland), with the company seeking to recoup some of their
investment. Streets were named to honour directors of the Bon Accord Mining Company and the retention of
mineral rights by the company prevented SAMA from acquiring the land, as they had in Redruth. New Aberdeen was subdivided after 1872 arrival of the
railway line from
Kapunda, and most of the early buildings in the two townships were constructed in the three years following. == Railway ==