Burra Miners Dugouts
The eroded creekbank hollows where up to 1,800 Cornish miners and their families once lived in the 1850s, dug into the soft clay.
Among the most poignant sights in Burra are the miners' dugouts along the Burra Creek. In the 1850s, with no housing built for the flood of immigrant labour, as many as 1,800 people lived in hollows dug straight into the soft clay banks of the creek.
Damp, cramped and prone to flooding, the dugouts were a desperate solution that scandalised colonial authorities and eventually spurred the building of proper cottages like those at Paxton Square. Today you can still trace the eroded chambers and chimney holes along the creek.
The site is a sobering counterpoint to Burra's grand mine and offices — a reminder of the human cost behind the copper boom. It's an easy walk and part of the Heritage Passport trail.
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#5
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A copper-mining time capsule of mines, dugouts, a gaol and Cornish stone.
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Image credits
- Burra dugouts - exterior.JPG by Peripitus , CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons