The best thing to in 40 degree heat is take a tour of the Blinman mine. I was feeling very sleepy and needed to sleep or have coffee, where was Blinman? I'd been driving for a while and had been on high roo and emu alert. I needed some shade off the road and found some at Blinman cemetery, I stopped and had a sleep for 20 minutes before continuing to Blinman for coffee in the cafe/shop. On the way in I had seen a sign for Blinman Mine tours, I finished my coffee and went across the road where the tour shop was, the next tour was at 2pm, it was 2.01pm. My tour guide was Susan and I was the only one of the tour.
Blinman is a town of 17 people with a greater area population of 75 and as a collective the community has done some very impressive things with this mine tour.
So ages ago a guy buys a licence to mine there, access tunnels are made and families bid for sections of the mine to work for a percentage of the profit, in this way the mine is divided up and worked by family groups. Sometimes the rock beween the tunnels becomes too thin to be safe due to the mining of surrounding areas and wooden supports are erected to stop areas of the mine from collapse. Often the lads who are pushing the carts of mined rock out have to negociate carts over planks of wood that are all that separates them from 15m drop to the next level down. The mine had a 5% copper extraction rate, apparently most mines the extraction rate is 0.2% or something tiny.
The miners came from Cornwall and ate Cornish pasties which had the sweet and savoury in the same pasty, they had a longer bit of pastry that formed a handle that the miners could hold and then discard as their hands would be filthy, so this way they could eat in the dark with out touching their food. Each miner used one candle a day.
Susan controlled the lighting and sound within the mine with an ipad, it was cleverly done, in some areas Susan would say, "what can you see here?" and the lighting would only be showing a certain spot leaving you to wonder what was in the darkness, then the rest of the area would be lit up and it usually wasn't what I expected.
I think everyone who visits Flinders Ranges should experience this tour. 10/10.
Afterwards I went back to the café where the lady there makes the traditional pasties, she had one left, it was the best Cornish Pasty I've ever tasted.
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| Blinman Mines |
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| Tent and swag borrowed from Boxy |
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| Wangara Lookout at 8.30am. I had to be walking by 6.45am to avoid the heat. |
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