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32-529: The South Australian Mining Association (SAMA) was formed in 1841 following a letter to the South Australian newspapers by Johann Menge , extolling the mineral wealth which he believed lay under the soil, and later itemised. and discovery of silver-lead ore to the east of Adelaide, dubbed the Wheal Gawler mine. Shares were offered to the public. John Bentham Neales was agent and George Morphett

64-532: A brake on development of the town. Much of this property was offered at auction off by Bagot, Shakes & Lewis in 1904, but the reserve prices were so high that only a small fraction was sold and critical blocks adjoining the Burra Creek were held back. Another auction was held in 1912 Johann Menge Johannes Menge (4 January 1788 – 1852), is regarded as South Australia's first geologist , though he had no formal qualifications. An early explorer of

96-528: A building there, which offer was taken up by the Bible Christians , who transported a surplus building to the site. Solomon is commemorated for the generosity he provided to Mary MacKillop . In November 1871 he gave the Sisters of St. Joseph , who had been evicted from their convent, a house rent free. In December 1871 he hosted a reception for 500 early settlers of South Australia to celebrate

128-490: A newspaper advertisement soliciting mineral samples, on 9 June 1845 William Strear brought samples of a rich copper ore into the office of Henry Ayers , the Association's secretary. Strear, a young shepherd employed by pastoralist James Stein , had walked the 90 miles (140 km) from Burra; a similar find was reported by Thomas Pickett, a bullock driver employed by William Robinson of Gum Creek, near Manoora . News of

160-439: A profit of £20,000; and £90,000 in the first eighteen months. Some shareholders sold up and returned to England with their new-found wealth; Emanuel Solomon realised £200 for every £5 share and went on to other projects, others held on and reaped enormous dividends every year until 1860. In the twelve months to 31 March 1848, 13,533 tons of ore was shipped. By 1 September 1848 every £5 share had earned £50 for its owner, and £315 in

192-488: A township to be known as Port Pirie. Little development occurred on site and by the late 1860s there were only three woolsheds on the riverfront. It was later re-surveyed and became Port Pirie 's suburb Solomontown , commonly referred to as "Solly". Solomon had reserved a parcel of land for a synagogue, but was never taken up by the few Jews in Port Pirie. A clause in his will left it to whatever denomination should erect

224-678: The Lady Castlereagh . He arrived in South Australia in 1837 and was one of the founders of the Adelaide Hebrew Congregation. He founded the Queen's Theatre, Adelaide with brother Vaiben and occasional involvement of nephew Judah Moss Solomon (1818–1880), father of Vaiben Louis Solomon . In 1848 he and Matthew Smith purchased 85 acres (34 ha) of land on Spencer Gulf and subdivided it as

256-722: The River Torrens near Montacute . Henry Mildred was appointed chairman; seven members of the Association were elected to form the board of management (three to be replaced each year). They were (in order of votes received) Emanuel Solomon , John Cundy Sleman (who left Australia in December 1846), Charles Beck, Samuel Stocks, jun. , William Peacock , Jacob Hagen , George Bean . Other candidates were: (again in order of votes received) William Paxton , Matthew Smith, Thomas Whistler, Samuel Payne, Tom Cox Bray , Robert Sanders and Edward Castres Gwynne . The firm of Smart & Payne

288-580: The South Australian Legislative Assembly from 1862 to 1865. He is the brother of Vaiben Solomon and is a part of the larger Solomon family . Emanuel was born in London, a son of Samuel Moss Solomon (c. 1769 – 13 May 1842) and his first wife Elizabeth née Moses (c. 1772–c. 1814). He and his brother Vaiben Solomon (1802 – 21 June 1860) were transported to Sydney and served time for larceny, arriving on 1 May 1818 aboard

320-561: The University of Lübeck in 1821. After the death of his wife in 1830 he moved to England, where he taught languages, notably Hebrew . He became friends with George Fife Angas , who encouraged him to travel to the new colony of South Australia for employment with the South Australia Company . Menge sailed to South Australia aboard Coromandel . On 12 January 1837 the ship arrived at Kangaroo Island , where Menge

352-525: The 21 years before the Association was dissolved. Meanwhile, the economy of South Australia, which had been in the doldrums since George Grey became Governor of South Australia in 1841, recovered completely. By March 1848 the number of men and boys working at the mine had risen to 567 and 13,533 tons of ore had been carted to the Port in the previous year by some eight hundred teamsters and between six and seven thousand bullocks. By 1851 there were 1013 working at

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384-643: The 35th anniversary of the foundation of the colony. Photographer Henry Jones took photographs of most if not all of those who were invited to attend. He presented a large composite photograph to Solomon, and in 1910 another was purchased from Jones by T. R. Bowman and donated to the Public Library for display in the entrance foyer. He was elected to the seat of West Adelaide in the South Australian Legislative Assembly in November 1862 , with James Crabb Verco as his colleague, and resigned in 1865. He

416-476: The Association still raised some 11,000 tons of ore, for a profit of £58,000. Most of the gold seekers returned disillusioned and eager to return to paid work. In this year the Monster Engine and its massive cast-iron pipework was installed, so that mining could continue below the water table . Keeping water out of the mines at depth remained a major engineering and financial problem. A new prospect named

448-650: The Australian colonial project", but also were "intricately involved in imagining, knowing and shaping colonial Australia" (Barrett, et al., 2018, p. 2). Menge was particularly fond of the Barossa Valley (which he called "New Silesia"), and he lived there for some time in a cave on the banks of Jacob's Creek at its junction with the North Para River. He diverted the flow of Jacob's Creek and created "Menges' Island" where he grew vegetables. He

480-471: The Kapunda mine; two (unnamed) English investors; Thomas Shepherd, Joseph Johnson, and George Tinline . George Morphett acted as Chairman, E. A. Wright as Secretary. An amicable arrangement was made between these two groups: that each should pay half the £20,000 in specie demanded by Governor Grey , that the surveyed area should be divided in two, which was done on 20 September 1845, and by some means it

512-591: The Karkulto Mine, 16 miles (26 km) south of Burra, near Emu Plains, was opened up in 1850. The SAMA and the Royal Mining Company each purchased a large block of land and commenced mining. The Royal Mining Company found some copper but more iron and soon exhausted its funds and the directors' patience. The SAMA abandoned the mine in 1869 without it ever showing a profit. By 1867 the price of copper had dropped to £70 per ton; so low that digging

544-528: The barrister for the Association, whose shares were under-subscribed, and whatever mining may have taken place was not newsworthy. On 16 April 1845 the Association was resurrected, or a new one formed with the same name (it is not easy to determine which), as a no liability (or no-responsibility in the terminology of the day) company. At the land sales of 19 April 1845 the Association made a purchase adjoining Captain Bagot 's property near Kapunda , and another on

576-752: The discovery was published on 21 June in Adelaide newspapers, and the site was soon named The Monster Mine. A Special Survey of 20,000 acres (81 km) of August 1845 on the Burra Creek was drawn up, and which was expected to encompass any potential mine sites. Two parties tendered for the mineral rights: the Association and the Princess Royal Company (dubbed the "Nobs", these were much wealthier individuals), whose members were George F. Aston, John Grainger , R. Boucher James , Charles Hervey Bagot , Francis S. Dutton and other proprietors of

608-458: The ire of family men, who were already struggling with the hardships and high living expenses of Burra. The Association won out: the workers accepted the new contract and went back to work in early November. Burra Burra shares rallied to £129. Around mid-1851 news of the gold finds in Victoria reached Burra, and in the year to 31 March 1852, two thirds of the workforce left to try their luck, but

640-579: The mine, and that year shipped 23,338 tons of ore, which would have yielded around 5,000 tons of copper metal, worth something over £450,000. In September 1848 the miners, who were paid on the tribute system, went on strike over the way assay of their ore was handled. After a week, management met the strikers; Police were on hand but the meeting was orderly and the dispute was settled amicably. A few weeks later, management announced that wages of labourers and carters were to be reduced to 21s. per week, well below what had attracted them to Burra. This especially drew

672-536: The new colony, he was influential in the settlement of the Barossa Valley . He has been called the "father of South Australian mineralogy". On the passenger list of the ship that brought him out he was called "Johannes Joseph Menge", but in his letters to newspapers he variously called himself "John" and "Joseph". To fellow-colonists he was "Professor Menge". Born in the town of Steinau , Holy Roman Empire , Germany , Menge had little formal education, but

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704-469: The newspapers until October) and was buried at Forest Creek (now Chewton, part of Castlemaine) near Bendigo . A biography of Menge was written by W. A. Cawthorne (1825–1897), an early Adelaide schoolmaster. Emanuel Solomon Emanuel Solomon (1800–3 October 1873) was a businessman and politician in the early days of the Colony of South Australia , representing the seat of West Adelaide in

736-400: The ore out was no longer profitable. An English expert, John Darlington, came out in 1868 and recommended that what had been a series of underground mines should be opened out to become an open-cut mine in order to recover at low cost the lower grade ore. This was commenced in 1870 and continued until the mine was closed in 1887, but the open cut yielded little or no ore. From 1867 to 1872 no ore

768-893: The spread of settlement, and mineral exploration by others. This ultimately led to a mining boom that saved the fledgling colony. He wrote papers on several topics, particularly mineralogy, and in 1840 wrote a book entitled Mineral Kingdom of South Australia . He was one of a number of influential German-speaking residents — such as Ludwig Becker , Hermann Beckler , William Blandowski , Amalie Dietrich , Wilhelm Haacke , Diedrich Henne , Gerard Krefft , Johann Luehmann , Carl Mücke (a.k.a. Muecke) , Ludwig Preiss , Carl Ludwig Christian Rümker (a.k.a. Ruemker) , Moritz Richard Schomburgk , Richard Wolfgang Semon , Karl Theodor Staiger , George Ulrich , Eugene von Guérard , Robert von Lendenfeld , Ferdinand von Mueller , Georg von Neumayer , and Carl Wilhelmi — who brought their "epistemic traditions" to Australia, and not only became "deeply entangled with

800-613: Was Thomas Burr who most keenly and scientifically observed the colony's geology, his Remarks on the Geology and Mineralogy of South Australia being published at Adelaide in 1846, this being the colony's first official government geological report and the first geological book to be published in Australia. In 1852 Menge walked overland to the Victorian gold diggings , where in the winter of that year he died (though news did not reach

832-399: Was a keen learner and quickly gained a broad knowledge of languages, philosophy, medicine, religion, and geology. His particular interest in geology developed after his early employment by Privy Councillor Karl Cäsar von Leonhard , who collected and sold mineral specimens. Menge later travelled widely through Europe and beyond, and was awarded an honorary degree of Professor of Mineralogy from

864-488: Was appointed their solicitors and Henry Ayers secretary. Other subscribers were: J. Dickens, Michael Featherstone, J. B. Graham , G. S. Kingston , J. B. Neales , John Newman, Robert Pepperell, John Ridley , George Stevenson, ?? White. Other names were William Allen , Frederick John Beck, Joseph Bouch, James Bunce, (Edward?) Drew, Anthony Hall, John Hallett, James Hardman, James Masters, Christopher Septimus Penny, Henry Roach, John Slatter, Thomas Waterhouse. Following

896-590: Was elected to the Legislative Council in 1867 and retired in September 1871 . He married fellow convict Mary Ann Wilson on 6 November 1826. On 12 April 1844 he married Cecilia Adelaide Smith ( – 24 July 1852) who died in Sydney; that same year he married a third time, to Catherine Abrahams (c. 1819 – 2 July 1901). Their children included: His oldest brother Moss Solomon (c. 1796 – 3 February 1849)

928-578: Was hired as the colony's Mine and Quarry Agent and Geologist. However, his eccentric ways led to his dismissal from the company on 30 June 1838. Menge then moved to the South Australian mainland, travelling widely, exploring alone as far north as Mount Remarkable and searching for minerals, while engaging in many other interests. He was the first to discover copper in the Adelaide Hills . He kept in regular contact with George Fife Angas and sent him letters and reports; his activities thus encouraging

960-639: Was particularly struck with the possibilities for viticulture . Menge wrote to Angas detailing the Barossa as "the cream, the whole cream and nothing but the cream". When the first German Lutheran immigrants arrived in the state, Menge assisted in their resettlement from their initial residence in the Adelaide Hills to the Barossa Valley. It is claimed that in 1849 Menge made the first discovery of opal in Australia. Despite Menge being attributed with many early geological discoveries in South Australia, it

992-405: Was resolved that the Association should have the northern moiety and the Princess Royal Company the southern. The Association wasted little time; they despatched ten Cornish miners, a blacksmith and a captain to the site and began blasting on 29 September, and soon bullock drays loaded with the red copper oxide ore were inching their way to Port Adelaide. Within seven months the Association had made

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1024-757: Was taken out, then captain Robert Sanders took over, and forked the water to the 70 fathom (420 feet (130 m)) level, whence it was pumped out, and mining continued for another five years, then on 14 September 1877 mining ceased and 250 men were unemployed. Captain Sanders secured a position with the Walhalla mine in Gippsland . The Association continued to exist as an absentee landlord of many properties in Burra, and by its tough negotiating attitude acted as

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