Moonta Museum

It's housed in the Old Moonta Mines Model School, which at it's peak in 1881 had 11-hundred children attending. They were mostly the sons and daughters of miners and so it's appropriate The National Trust now uses the Old Classrooms to teach us about the life of the miners. The school eventually closed in 1968 after 90 years - at the time there were only 28 students. Inside is a mock mine tunnel that's no place for the claustrophobic ... but gives a first hand feeling about what "a day at the office" meant for miners. There's also pictorial evidence of the dangers of this line of work. But the museum is as much a social record as an industrial one. There is an old class room that shows what schooling was like in the 19th century ... and the entire shopfront from "Learmonds Emporium" has been preserved. It was just one of the businesses that fed off the Copper Boom and they show us the impact of more that 10-thousand immigrants can have.

The Moonta Mines Museum is outside the main town near the Tourist Railway terminus. It's normal hours are Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons and will be open during Kernewek Lowender. For more information email info@postcards-sa.com.au