Burra is a country town in South Australia located 160km north of Adelaide, with a population of approximately 1,200 people. Founded in 1845, it was from then until 1877 the site of one of the world’s major copper mines, the income from which did much to save the young colony from financial disaster. By the time the mine closed in 1877 it was already also serving as a transport centre for the north-east of the colony and parts of western NSW and SW Qld. In the following decade it served the growing wheat farming areas to the west and for a while the untimely doomed expansion in the drier areas to the east. In the late 19th century and early 20th century it was South Australia’s main centre for sale of sheep and became renowned as the main town in an area famed for stud merino sheep breeding. As the 20th century progressed the sheep sale and transport function declined. The mine operated again from 1970-1981 and afterwards the processing of copper ore from other sources continued under Adchem which produces copper oxide. Burra is now a rural service centre for a farming and grazing community and tourist attraction focussed on its mining heritage.

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