Michael swears it was the Wikicamps reviews that attracted him to stay overnight at Iron Knob but i suspect it had something to do with the school boy humour he still has with anything phallic! Either way, I'm glad it appeared on our radar as it was a most interesting town. Truely bizarre but interesting for an overnighter.
Iron Knob is the birthplace of the iron ore industry in Australia. The brief history goes somewhat like this;
The ore is some of the highest quality on the world, averaging 68 - 70% metallic ore. This compares to 30% in the UK, 50% in the USA and 36% in some European countries
1880 - 1896: a German, Ernst Siekman, commercially mined the ore under the company name of Mount Minden Mining but fell behind with rent for the leases and failed to meet labour conditions legislated by the SA Govt (really!!...can you imagine how bad conditions were?? For the time, I don't reckon the Govt's labour regulations would have been terribly arduous!)
1899: BHP took over and began mining, initially using Bullock to take the ore to Port Augusta - a 2 day trip, often in 40degree+ temperatures. From here, trains were used to move the ore to Port Pirie. The mine was clearly able to yield high loads of ore (100,000 tones in about a year using manual labour), but the cost of transport was out of all proportion to the value of the ore.
1900: a light tramway was built to take the ore to Wyalla
1918: steam trains replaced the trams. Each train had 10-15 trucks and were capable of carrying 15 tons of ore
1918: mechanical devices started replacing manual labour for breaking up the ore
1928: demand had increased so much that a large scale electrically operated plant replaced steam shovels, dramatically increasing the amount of tons to be mined per hour
sometime later!: diesel trains replaced steam trains
1998: BHP closed the mine. The population of Iron Knob reduced to less than 200, leaving it to slowly wither and decay
2013: Onesteel (now Arrium) reopened the mine and continue to operate today, albeit using modern and efficient machines
When huge ore deposits were discovered in Western Australia, Iron Knob became somewhat redundant. It's a shame BHP haven't invested more to maintain the history and character of the town. Everything is run down, the shops have all closed and rusted, abandoned cars litter the streets and empty properties. It was once a thriving 2000+ township that even had it's own pool, which Dawn Fraser visited! Come on BHP, the good folk at Iron Knob desperately need a lazy $100,000 or two to clean up the place and attract some more tourists.
I wish we had another 3-4 hours to hang about for the mine tour and share a 'free all day cuppa' with the locals at the info centre but with another big day of driving ahead, we decided to hit the road early.
Thanks for your hospitality Iron Knob - clean toilets, a bush shower, basic camp kitchen and a view across the dusty footy oval to the endless horizon...all for $5!!
A snapshot of Iron Knob - so Aussie!
Kimba - as the sign proudly displays, the half way point across Australia. Love the giant pink galah...more Aussie tourist attractions to make us proud!
Some old machinery used to clear land (somewhere between Port Augusta and Iron Knob!) These machines each took 8-10 horses to pull them!
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