Kapunda
The final site in the Cornish Copper Triangle is at Kapunda, where I met geologist and Cornish historian Greg Drew for a tour of the major sites. Greg is a really important authority on the history of Cornish mining, and has been responsible for much of the preservation, interpretation of, and recognition of the huge significance of these sites. With Cornish ancestry himself, he has done much research on the history of Cornish immigration and has just published a book on the subject.
The post-mining landscapes at Kapunda were really beautiful, and remininscent of Parys Mountain Copper Mine in Anglesey. What was odd was the way in which the fairly small mined area was set into rolling hills and trees, like a landscape within a landscape.There were many green rocks here where oxidised copper has leached through the sandstone, and turquoise lagoons. In terms of materials on site to work with, this site could be really interesting. As in previous work, I am interested in how the underground workings have been mapped and drawn, and the maps I’ve seen so far in Australia are really similar to the ones in Cornwall.
