Yudnamutana ( ) is a historic mining valley in the Northern

Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain ranges in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhab ...

, located at Mount Freeling, North West of

Arkaroola Arkaroola is the common name for the ''Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary'', a wildlife sanctuary situated on of freehold and pastoral lease land in South Australia. It is located north of the Adelaide city centre in the Northern Flinders Rang ...

on the edge of the wilderness sanctuary. It is accessible by

four-wheel drive A four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, is a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case pr ...

from the south. Ancient mining sites give the opportunity for ecologically responsible bush camping, but no supplies are available. Walks across the crests of the mountains deliver splendid views over the Flinders Ranges into the plains of the

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than Australian bush, the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastli ...

. The northern pass hosts black rocks of

magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula . It is one of the iron oxide, oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetism, ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetization, magnetized to become a ...

History

Indigenous people

This area was inhabited by the

Adnyamathanha The Adnyamathanha (Pronounced: ) are a contemporarily formed grouping of several distinct Aboriginal Australian peoples of the northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia. The ethnonym Adnyamathanha was an alternative name for the Wailpi but th ...

tribe of

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

for millennia before the arrival of Europeans. They were

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

hunter-gatherers A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, especially w ...

and inhabited much of the area to the south.

European settlement

This area was first settled by pastoralists in the 1850s. Prospectors followed shortly after, hoping for another Burra style deposit.

Mining

A copper deposit was found, in 1859, by A. Frost and H. Gleeson.Yudnamutana, South Australia
''Journal of the Mineralogical Society of South Australia'', Accessed 16 November 2007 Record of the mines of South Australia
''Internet Archive, Canadian Libraries'' Yudnamutana was the site of an early

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

copper mine Copper extraction is the multi-stage process of obtaining copper from its ores. The conversion of copper ores consists of a series of physical, chemical, and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ...

. First mined in 1862, it reached fame in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

shortly afterwards when a block of ore weighing was paraded through the streets. Copper concentrates were hauled to

Port Augusta Port Augusta (''Goordnada'' in the revived indigenous Barngarla language) is a coastal city in South Australia about by road from the state capital, Adelaide. Most of the city is on the eastern shores of Spencer Gulf, immediately south of the ...

in drays by animals along rough tracks – a distance of about . This limiting factor affected the company's profitability. A drought in 1869 forced the closure of the mine because not enough water was available for animals that worked at the mine. Another attempt was made at mining the site at the start of the 20th century. Transport was less costly this time – by dray for only to the

Central Australia Railway The former Central Australia Railway, which was built between 1878 and 1929 and dismantled in 1980, was a Narrow-gauge railway, 1067 mm narrow gauge railway between Port Augusta railway station, Port Augusta and Alice Springs. A standard gau ...

at Farina, then by train. The mine's proprietors tried to further reduce the cost of transport by instigating a

road train A road train, also known as a land train or long combination vehicle (LCV) is a semi-trailer used to move road freight more efficiently than single-trailer semi-trailers. It consists of one semi-trailer or more connected together with or wit ...

to Farina railway station in 1909. However, the rough terrain and mechanical breakdowns soon ended the scheme. A small smelter was constructed at Farina in 1909 or 1910, but it closed after only a few experiments and was demolished in 1938. The mine itself closed again by 1912. All that remains of this settlement are two large boilers, some mine shafts, some dugouts and the cemetery.

Notes

External links

History of Yudnamutana

Picture Australia
{cbignore, bot=medic Ghost towns in South Australia Flinders Ranges Far North (South Australia) 1862 establishments in Australia