Burraga

Burraga New South Wales
Burraga
Coordinates	33°57′0″S 149°32′45″E / 33.95000°S 149.54583°E / -33.95000; 149.54583Coordinates: 33°57′0″S 149°32′45″E / 33.95000°S 149.54583°E / -33.95000; 149.54583
Postcode(s)	2795
LGA(s)	Oberon
State electorate(s)	Bathurst
Federal division(s)	Calare

Burraga is located in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, 47 kilometres south west of Oberon and about 67 kilometres (42 mi) south of Bathurst. It is within Oberon Shire.^[1] At the 2016 census, Burraga had a population of 91.^[2]

History[]

Aboriginal and early settler history[]

The area now known as Burraga lies on the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri people.^[3] The name Burraga is almost certainly a settler rendering of an Aboriginal language word.

Mining[]

Copper was discovered around 1877 and was reported on by the Inspector of Mines in 1878.^[4] Mining commenced at the Thompsons Creek copper mine, but was hampered by poor management and under capitalisation, until the mine was purchased in 1879 by Lewis Lloyd, who was known as "the copper king".^[5] The mine then became known as Lloyd's Copper Mine. Lloyd built reverberatory smelting furnaces near the mine. By 1900, it had produced over £1,000,000 worth of copper.^[6]

In 1899, Lloyd sold his interest in the mine at Burraga to an English company for £100,000,^[7] and the mine became the Lloyd Copper Company Mine. Mining and smelting at Burraga had been hindered by the availability of water and fuel for the furnaces; the new owners set about solving these issues.^[6] Construction of a concrete dam on Thompson's Creek was completed in 1901 although, due to a drought, the dam did not fill completely with water until 1903. However, the new owners' attempt to change the smelting process, from using reverberatory furnaces to pyritic smelting in a water-jacketed blast furnace, was a total failure. Although a large sum was invested in the operation, there had been some poor decisions made.^[8] By 1908, the mine operations were in jeopardy, due to a scarcity of fuel,^[9] and the mine closed in May that year. The only remaining mining going on to support the village was at the nearby Mt David Gold Mine.^[10][11][12]

The Lloyd mine appears to have reopened around 1912, with another round of capital investment.^[13] A narrow-gauge tramway that used two Shay locomotives was constructed around 1912-1913 to bring timber fuel to the smelter.^[5] A fire in late 1913 destroyed one of the locomotives.^[14] Falling copper prices led to another closure of the mine in July 1914.^[15] The entire mine and associated assets were sold, on behalf of creditors, in 1916, for a mere £5,680.^[16] The new owners had the mine, now called the Abercrombie Copper Mine, in production again in March 1917, but problems obtaining enough timber for fuel continued to lead to temporary closures.^{[17][18][19][20]} By mid-1918, wartime shipping conditions had made it impossible to export copper, already sold to the British Government, from N.S.W.; the smelter at Burraga closed in August 1918, with the ore being sent instead to Port Kembla,^[21] via the railway station at Perthville.^[22]

The mine closed down, in January 1919,^[23] and equipment from the operation, including the remaining Shay locomotive, was sold off in 1920.^[5][24] A long awaited branch railway line from Tarana to Burraga, which would have allowed coal to be brought to the smelters or ore to be shipped more economically, was built only as far as Oberon; it opened in November 1923.^[25][26]

Mining continued on and off up until 1961.^[27] Studies were being conducted around 2012, looking for worthwhile lodes of copper and gold at the nearby Lucky Draw Gold Mine.^[27][28]

Mining village of Burraga[]

The Burraga village developed as the Thompsons Creek copper mine developed. As the mine expanded, workers settled on the nearby land resulting in the reservation of a site for a village in October 1883. A village was surveyed in December 1884 and a formal plan was reserved on 29 October 1887.^[29] A public school opened in November 1883.^[30]

As there were no other industries to provide employment the fortunes of the village rose and fell in line with those of the copper mine. In 1883 it was stated that the mine employed about 200 men and that the population of Burraga was about 500 persons including 60 children. The village had "the usual businesses", a post office and a public school.^[31]

The population seems to have peaked in the early 1900s, at around 2,000, during the construction of the new plant at the mine site.^[13] When the mine closed for the first time, in 1908, the population was still around 1,500.^[10] The population had fallen to 747, in 1911, the year before the mine reopened.^[32] It then rose again to around 1,400 to 1500, but after the mine closed for a second time in 1914, the population slumped to only 250 by 1916.^[33] Just after the final mine closure, in 1919, the population was 1,231.^[34] By 1924, the village's population was only 124.^[35]

The village had two hotels; the Royal Hotel was destroyed by fire in 1932 and the Burraga Hotel was closed in 1933, and its disused building was also destroyed by fire in 1942.^[36]

Present day[]

Little remains of the copper mine's operations today; the single remaining tall brick chimney that dominates the site is a remnant of the failed attempt at pyritic smelting, the Burraga Dam on Thompson's Creek survives as a popular angling venue, and there are remnant shafts and slag heaps at the sites of the mine and smelters.^[37] The site is viewed as a prospective film location.^[38]

The village of Burraga is a quiet place now but still has a public school^[30] and a village store that is a postal agency.^[39] The Burraga Sports and Services Club serves the village and nearby area.^[36]

Gallery[]

• 

  Underground workings of the copper mine (c.1899)

• 

  Burraga copper mine smelters (c.1899)

• 

  Burraga copper mine smelters (c.1899)

• 

  Burraga, mining village c.1900

References[]

External links[]

• Media at Wikimedia Commons under Category: Burraga