Aah The Serenity!

 Back in the 2022 census Moonta had a tad over 3000 private dwellings and of those more than 1000 were not inhabited on census night.  The rate of habitation has not gone up since then.  Walking around the streets of Moonta is akin to visiting a ghost town, albeit one much better groomed than what is usually expected of ghost towns.  Locals told me that in summer the town bursts at the seams with holiday makers from elsewhere, either renting a holiday unit or visiting their 'summer' house.  In winter, as I found out, Moonta was a town of shuttered windows and silent streets, more so the closer you got to the beach. Mornings brought birdsong and the gentle susurration of the sea, rush hour being comprised of two bicycles and a mobility scooter. Roger was outraged to hear the grumble of a school bus as it trundled past our door.

Morning in Moonta Bay.

 

It wasn't always that way.  Back in the 1800s Moonta was the biggest centre outside of Adelaide, with a thriving population of over 12000 souls.  This was due to a (for the times) huge copper mining industry and an accompanying influx of Cornish miners who were valued for their skill at mining hard rock, their Methodist work ethic, and the lack of education which made them easier to exploit.  In a Cornwall ravaged by mine closures and poverty, the promise of free passage and a new life in the paradise of South Australia was too good an opportunity to pass up for many of the Cornish miners. 

It pays to read the fine print, because Moonta was not Port Adelaide and therefore fell into the category of 'other settlements' which most definitely suffered from water scarcity.

 

In fact if miners chose to live on the mine lease they had the advantage of paying absolutely nothing at all, balanced b the minor drawback of receiving nothing at all and the pleasure of paying Tuppence for a bucket of water (fetch it yourself) from the water still operated by the mine. The Moonta Mine hit peak production during WWI and closed in 1993.  Its legacy in the end was a landscape forever altered and a thriving agricultural industry.  We visited the Moonta Mine Museum to learn more about it.

The Museum was housed in the old Moonta School, an imposing stone building which housed over 1000 students in its heyday.

Having been through the Museum we found that, should we come back at 1130 tomorrow, we could catch a little train around the old mine and be thoroughly educated about everything we would see.  This sounded like a grand idea and released us from the obligation of reading information boards and walking around the mine, so we went home via the main street which was chockablock full of beautiful old stone buildings from Moonta's days as a bustling metropolis.

Moonta Railway Station.

Old Railway sheds.  And wildflowers.  All the wildflowers are springing to life.

The Moonta School of Mines, which started out as a church and became a forerunner of the modern TAFE system.

Not a beautiful building, but who can resist a street piano?

And of course a street bicycle.

New coat pose.

 Finally back home after walking all day, we sat on the couch with a cup of tea. Outside, the sky blazed fire with a sunset that would have been truly spectacular had I walked 300m and watched it over the sea.

"Should we go out and watch the sunset?" asked Roger, and then the sun went down before any decision was made, so no sunset photos for you.

Only pictures taken through the flyscreen, single-handed with cup of tea in the other hand.

More of Moonta's beautiful buildings.