Todays SHP comes to you from the town of Aspach in the beautiful wine growing area of baden-württemberg in Germany.
The Cadia area in New South Wales is 20 km SSW of
Orange, the large provincial city on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, 250 km west of
Sydney. The area is elevated, with the local feature being
Mount Canobolas at an altitude of 1396 m, 11 km SW of
Orange.
The Cadia area is 12 km south of Mt Canobolas, roughly at an elevation of 800 m though with interesting valleys and waterways.
Sketch of The Cornish Engine House
In July 1851, copper lodes in the Cadia area were reported by the first NSW Government Geologist, Samuel Stutchbury. In about 1860, the owners of a 565 acre property on the west side of Cadiangullong Creek (also known as
Oakey Creek) were Sir Saul Samuel, Randolph
J. Want, Thomas Icely and
John Savery Rodd. They began sinking shafts and drives on various parts of the lode, finding that some parts of the lode of copper ores were as much as 70 feet wide. The lode appeared to be mainly of red copper oxide and green copper carbonate.
It appears that the owners of the Cadia property had taken advice from members of the mining community in the area where there had already been considerable mining and smelting activity. They agreed that they would lease the property to the Scottish Australian Mining Company (SAMC) which had extensive interests not only in NSW but in South Australia and Victoria as
well. The Company had ordered a 25 inch rotative beam engine, to be built by J. Thomas and Company at the Charlestown Foundry in St Austell, Cornwall. It was to be identical with the 25 inch engine then operating at the South Crinnis
Mine in Cornwall.
The Cadia Engine House and mine site in about 1930
The Cornish Engine House 1
The engine was to be inspected on behalf of SAMC by James Sims prior to its despatch to
Sydney in 1859. Sims was
well known to mining companies in Australia as he had designed two engines for use in South Australia, both made by Harvey & Co. of Hayle. His report on the inspection of the 25 inch engine and the crushing machine, also made at the Thomas Works, was laudatory. A copy of his handwritten letter still exists, sent from Redruth in Cornwall and dated 22 September 1859.
The engine was received at
the wharf in
Sydney on 9 May 1860. SAMC had determined, prior to their order of the engine, that it would be used at the Good Hope
Mine near Yass, about 300 km SW of
Sydney but installation at this site was deferred. After almost two years in storage in
Sydney, the engine and other equipment such as the crusher were moved to Cadia in February 1862, instead of to Yass.
Limited as the progress for the start of operations at Cadia was through correspondence to and from Cornwall and elsewhere overseas by ship, yet there is always appearing some obvious acquaintance between various members of the
mine community around the world.
Cadia
Mine is a series of large underground and open-cut gold and copper mines located in the Cadia Valley, about 20 kilometres south of the regional city of
Orange, New South Wales, Australia. The
mine has been developed throughout the 1990s and is a major employer in the region with an expected lifespan of several decades. Cadia is the second largest open cut
mine in Australia after the Super Pit at Kalgoorlie.
The
mine is operated by Newcrest Mining. Cadia-Ridgeway is one of three gold mines Newcrest currently operates in Australia, the other two being Telfer in Western Australia and
Cracow in Queensland.
In 1992 Newcrest Mining discovered the Cadia
Hill ore body and began establishing what was to become one of the largest open cut gold mines in Australia.
One of the challenges that Newcrest faced was the 19th century Cadia village
cemetery, which due to its position would have to be exhumed and relocated. From 1998, Newcrest liaised with and gained approval from the NSW
Heritage Office to exhume the Cadia
Cemetery and rebury the remains.
Very few 19th century cemeteries have been exhumed in Australia. This project provided a rare opportunity to study Australian burial practice over the last 150 years and to add to the history of the Cadia region. In 1998 the Cadia
Cemetery was exhumed by a team of 15 archaeologists, over a period of six months and the burials were relocated to an area close to the Cornish Engine House, named the Garden of Remembrance
These Co-Ords will show the
mine on Google Earth.
33°28'6.73"S 148°59'34.46"E