Kapunda - SA

Kapunda was a keystone in the early development of South Australia. It has the distinction of being the oldest copper mining town in Australia, but not the oldest copper mine. The honour of this goes to Noarlunga, where a copper deposit was discovered and worked on the banks of the Onkaparinga River in May 1841. Discovered in 1842 Kapunda can be considered the birthplace of Australia's commercial mining history. Mining dominated the town for more than thirty years. When the mine closed in 1877, the town became the centre for a thriving pastoral industry and later the home of the world's largest private landowner, Cattle King Sir Sidney Kidman. He made the name Kapunda once again famous throughout Australia and the world for thirty years with his yearly horse sales.