The Monster Mine
The open cut and the Cornish engine houses from the 1860s, still standing on the ridge. The Morphett's Enginehouse museum is on the same site.
Burra & around
A copper town that kept the evidence
160 km north of Adelaide on the A32, in the Regional Council of Goyder and at the top of the Clare Valley.
In 1851 the Monster Mine at Burra was the richest copper mine in the world. When the copper ran out the town didn't knock anything down — it just stopped. That's why you can still walk through it.
Everything below is either a short walk from your front door or a short drive. Burra sits at 500 metres, so pack a jumper whatever the season.
Start here
The Heritage Passport
The Visitor Centre sells a passport that comes with an actual key. It unlocks eight sites along an 11-kilometre self-guided trail, and you drive between them at your own pace, letting yourself in.
The creek dugouts
Before there were cottages, mining families lived in holes dug into the banks of the Burra Creek. Some are still open to walk into.
Redruth Gaol
South Australia's first country gaol, built 1856. If it looks familiar, it's because Breaker Morant was filmed here.
Burra Visitor Centre — 2 Market Square. Phone 08 8892 2154. Pick up the passport on your way in; they'll tell you which sites are open that day.
The rest of it
What else there is
The main street
Two pubs, a bakery, a couple of cafés and enough antique and bric-a-brac shops to lose an afternoon in.
Clare Valley, 40 km
Riesling country. Forty kilometres south and you're at the northern cellar doors — an easy day out and back.
Golf and open country
Burra's course is rated A1 and welcomes casual players — just turn up. Beyond it, empty roads and big skies in every direction.
The community library
Holds the local history records. If you're chasing Cornish ancestors, this is where you start — a surprising number of guests do.
Just walking
The whole township is a State Heritage Area. Tivers Row is inside it, within walking distance of the Redruth quarter.
Getting here
Two hours from Adelaide on the A32 towards Broken Hill. The last stretch runs through wheat country that's gold in summer and green in winter.
When to come
Every season does something different
Winter is the one we'd pick. Burra is at 500 metres and gets properly cold — it has been known to snow. Light the fire and let the underfloor heating do the rest.
Spring brings the paddocks up green and the gardens into flower.
Summer is warm and dry, and the stone walls keep the cottages cool through the afternoon. The wheat runs gold in every direction.
Autumn is the quiet one, and usually the easiest to get a weekend.
Make a weekend of it
Two nights gets you the trail, the Clare Valley and a morning doing nothing at all.