NUMBER 190 Journal of OCTOBER, 1980 AUSTRALIAN TRAMWAY MUSEUMS ISSN 0155- 1264 . THE HORSE TRAMWAYS OF THE MOONTA DISTRICT Registered for Posting as a Periodical — Category B TROLLEY OCTOBER 1980 Vol. 21 No. 5 Issue No. 190 EDITOR Laurence Gordon PRODUCTION Bob Merchant THERE ARE TRAMS AND TRAINS, but the SUBSCRIPTIONS Norm Chinn distinction is not always clear. A big city DISTRIBUTION Mai McAulay system such as Melbourne is readily identifi­ Peter llallen able as the former but the 1861 Pitt Street horse line in Sydney, although using convent­ Published by the South Pacific Electric Railway ional horse tramcars was connected to the Co-operative Society Limited, Box 103 P.O. railway and used a step rail to permit the use Sutherland N.S.W. 2232 of railway vehicles. The Sydney steam trams Printed by Newey and Beath Printers Pty. Ltd., certainly ran in trains; the Kogarah to Sans 10 Belford Street Broadmeadow N.S.W. 2292 Souci line was surely a 'street railway', just as the Semaphore, Grange and both Glcnelg The opinions expressed in this publication are railways were. those of the authors and not necessarily those Yet on the Upper Yorke Peninsula to the of the publishers or the participating societies. north of Adelaide there grew and flourished a network of initially horse, then later steam worked lines that make the foregoing look straight forward. Ken McCarthy traces the dev­ elopment and rationalisation of these lines in The Horse Tramways of the Moonta District, which commences on page 3 opposite. $1.25 Re commended selling price. It is hoped at a later date to have a look at the short lines that were based on the jetties at Port Broughton and Port Germcin. All correspondence in relation to Trolley Wire and other publishing and sales matters should be forwarded to: Box 103 P.O. Sutherland N.S.W. 2232 CONTENTS The Horse Tramways of the Moonta District 3 The two drawings on page 7 are reproduced The Trolleybus Experiment in S.A. 18 from copies held by I .Harbison , Moonta Victor Harbour 2 1 National Trust Museum S.A. Adelaide Transport News 22 The original drawing for Fig. 1 bears the City Section 24 name J . B.Whitington, Wallaroo Bay Museum Notes and News 26 27th August 1866. FRONT COVER: After the closure of the Moonta horse tramway in /93/ cars 5 and 6 were transferred to Victor Harbour to work the short line to Granite Island where they remained until that line closed in 7955. Car 6 is seen at Victor Harbour in the mid /930.? soon after arrival from Moonta. -C.B.Thomas BACK COVER: Adelaide's limited use of advertising cars is little known. However this classic depot photo of A type 14 at Hackney shows it ready to enter traffic disguised as a travelling circus lent for that great old Australian enterprise, Wirth's Circus in the late /930s. -S.T.A. 2 TROLLEY WIRE OCTOBER,1980 THE HORSE TRAMWAYS OF THE MOONTA DISTRICT SOUTH AUSTRALIA Two horse cars in George Street Moonta. The front tram is the standard 5 ft 3 in gauge type built for the SAR, but the following tram is a 4 ft 8V2 in gauge unit mounted on a broad gauge truck. This car could therefore be former MTT Adelaide tram 25. The streets 0/ Moonta were decorated on this occasion for the 'Back to Moonta' celebrations of September 1927- This article deals with the story of the hitherto "If you have not been to Moonta, you have not neglected subject of the horse tramways of the travelled" ... was an old saying expressed by the Kadina-Wallaroo-Moonta district of South Aust­ miners of Cornish extraction who worked the rich ralia. The material has been written by K. copper lodes at Moonta S.A. between 1861 and McCarthy on the extensive data researched and 1923. This saying can still be applied to those supplied by Mr. Jim Harbison of Moonta. Mr. interested in the field of Industrial Archaeology, Harbison is the Chairman of the Moonta National and especially to readers of this magazine, if they Trust Museum Group; a very active band of people have not visited Moonta ... who have successfully established a major museum Cornishmen developed the early metalliferous at Moonta Mines, have preserved the many relics of mines in Australia. Their presence was particularly that area's mining heritage, and are presently in evidence at the Glen Osmond, Kapunda, Burra developing a reconstructed mining museum known Burra, Wallaroo (Kadina) and Moonta Felds in as "Wheal Munta" adjacent to the old school at South Australia and at Broken Hill in western New Moonta Mines. South Wales. 3 TROLLEY WIRE OCTOBER, 1980 A Kadina and Wallaroo Railway and Pier Company horse drawn carriage adjacent to the Wallaroo Smelters during the 1862 —1880 period. -K.Magor collection The rich copper fields known as the Wallaroo During the following month4 the Prospectus of the Mines at Kadina S.A. were discovered in Decem­ newly formed Kadina and Wallaroo Railway and ber 1859 while the lodes 10 miles to the south in an Pier Company was released. area known as Moonta were tapped in May 1861. Although the Kadina and Wallaroo Railway and The first Kadina ore was shipped from the port of Pier Company announced that it expected to Wallaroo and during 1861 a large smelters was declare a dividend at the end of July 18635 Mr. A. erected at that port. Gouge still seemed to have an active interest in the During 1861 "The Kadina and Wallaroo Rail­ undertaking for during May 18636 this gentleman way and Pier Coy" Bill passed through the South purchased the horse omnibus "Magnet" which had Australian Colonial Parliament and became a been working the Adelaide to Glenelg route. He private Act.' This approved the construction of a intended operating the bus "on the Wallaroo line of 5ft-3in gauge horse worked light railway from the railway". Wallaroo Mines at Kadina, over some 5 miles of The Wallaroo Mines area is situated 1 mile south undulating countryside to the Wallaroo smelters west of the town of Kadina. On 11 August 1863, and the 800 feet long pier at the port. however, the short extension of the horse railway Construction was far enough advanced during to the "corner of the township" was opened when March 1862 to enable the proprietors and the the first load of merchandise, consisting of ale and manager of the tramway to make an excursion trip porter from Nankervis' Brewery, was transported along the railway, eastwards from Port Wallaroo from Kadina to Port Wallaroo.7 At the same time for 4 miles to the construction rail head.2 To the Kadina and Wallaroo Railway and Pier Com­ demonstrate the capabilities of the undertaking four pany declared a dividend of 10% on the then capital trucks were drawn from the port towards Kadina, of £25000.8 This success prompted the Company one truck bearing 5 tons of ore, the rest being loaded to announce that it intended to proceed with the with ballast. construction of a branch 5ft-3in gauge horse rail­ The corporate title of this v enture is not too clear. way from Port Wallaroo to the rapidly expanding During October 1862 a local press report3 stated mining centre of Moonta 10 miles to the south. The that a company was being formed for the purpose of Company planned to increase its capital to £40,000 purchasing the railway between Kadina and Wal­ or £50,000 to finance this expansion. laroo, together with rolling stock, from Mr. Gouge. 4 TROLLEY WIRE OCTOBER, 1980 During October 1864 the Railway and Pier completion. This short extension was opened on Company awarded the contract for the Moonta Friday 7 February 186813 the local newspaper extension to a Melbourne firm9 and six months later noted that the poeple gathered at the terminus were 10 during April 1865 the turning of the first sod disappointed at the lack of speeches which were ceremony was staged halfway between France and expected to mark such an occasion. The directors Searle's Brewery and Sunnyside at Port Wallaroo. quickly retired to the local Royal Hotel where the On Friday 22 June 1866, as the Moonta railway success of the venture was drunk to excess. construction was nearing completion, a trial was The ability of the Railway and Pier Company to made ont he Kadina and Wallaroo railway of a new pay 10% dividends was perhaps due to frugal rather large passenger carriage." After being set up on a than just economic operations. A report in the carriage (underframe) it was drawn by six horses to "Register" on 12 February 1870 revealed that the its destination. Company of this "celebrated £9,000 per mile The "Register" for Saturday 28 July 1866 railway" was at last erecting a station at Kadina. reported on the opening of the Wallaroo to Moonta The account continued, however, that this building railway, the 10 mile line cost under £18,000. The would not be an "ambitious affair, for the propriet­ Moonta terminus of the railway was in the vicinity ors believe that bricks and mortar do not pay of Moonta Mines at a location known later as Yelta dividends. Siding. The principal traffic at the time of the Although the principal port for the copper opening was the carriage of copper ore to the Port industry was at Wallaroo, freight for Moonta was Wallaroo Smelters. successfully landed at Moonta Bay as early as The Moonta town area had been set out in the 1865.