Wallaroo Mines

Wallaroo Mines South Australia
Harvey's Pumping Station
Wallaroo Mines
Coordinates	33°57′58″S 137°41′53″E / 33.966202°S 137.698080°E / -33.966202; 137.698080Coordinates: 33°57′58″S 137°41′53″E / 33.966202°S 137.698080°E / -33.966202; 137.698080
Postcode(s)	5554
LGA(s)	District Council of the Copper Coast
State electorate(s)	Goyder
Federal Division(s)	Grey
Localities around Wallaroo Mines: Matta Flat New Town Kadina Jericho Wallaroo Mines Matta Flat Kadina Kadina Kadina
Footnotes	Coordinates

Wallaroo Mines is a suburb of the inland town of Kadina on the Yorke Peninsula. Despite its name, it is not located at the nearby coastal town of Wallaroo. It is located in the District Council of the Copper Coast. The boundaries were formally gazetted in January 1999 for "the long established name".

The Wallaroo Mines area is the traditional land of the Narungga people.

On 17 December 1859, James Boor, a shepherd on the Wallaroo sheep run, owned by Walter Watson Hughes, discovered copper at what was to become Wallaroo Mines. Thirty or forty men were reportedly working at the site by the end of the year. By August 1860, the new mines employed 150 men and were "turning out ores of a rich quality", and by the end of 1860 there was a total population of 500. The mines had an enginehouse, office, a residence for the captain and secretary, and an assay office by this point, along with its own store for the miners. The growth of the mines saw the town of Kadina surveyed in 1860, with the first blocks being put up for sale in March 1861. The proprietors formed the business into a private company, the Wallaroo Mining Company, with the first board meeting in August 1860 and Edward Stirling the first chairman.

A settlement developed around the mine in 1860, described as "a collection of miners' cottages, sheds, mine shafts, enginehouses and other mine buildings". A Primitive Methodist chapel was built in 1861. A canvas structure that had served as a courthouse was moved from the mines to the present courthouse site in Kadina on 2 April 1861, with the "gipsy tent" police station following in January 1862. Lay Methodist services began at the mines in 1861, before a church was opened in Kadina in November 1862. In June 1862, the Kadina and Wallaroo Railway and Pier Company opened a horse-driven railway connecting the mines to the port at Wallaroo, with a branch into Kadina. It was subsequently bought out by the South Australian government on 1 March 1878, with the steam railway from Adelaide arriving in the same year; the old horse-driven line was later pulled up. A Bible Christian church was built in 1866, and the Wallaroo Mines Wesleyan Methodist Church was built in 1867.