| Historical notes: | The following information is taken from various interpretative signs in the Miners Heritage Park and the Great Cobar Heritage Centre.
Campbell, Hartman and Gibb discovered copper in a water hole on the ridge behind where the Heritage Centre now stands in 1870. Sidwell Kruge, the Cornish wife of Henry Kruge the owner of the Gilgunnia Hotel, identified specimens of ore collected by Charles Campbell and his team of contractors from the Kubbur Waterhole as copper. As a young woman Sidwell had worked in the Cornish copper mines and was able to accurately identify it. Campbell and his contractors, George Gibb and Thomas Hartman, immediately set off to secure a mining lease to the land. For the price of 20 pounds, these three men, in partnership with the local postmaster and part time financier Joseph Becker, took up a mineral conditional purchase of 40 acres (approximately 16 hectares) over the waterhole on October 6, 1870. The partners eagerly awaited the results of samples of the ore that were sent away for assay. They were not disappointed as the samples sent to Adelaide gave spectacular assays of 33% fine copper. Other samples assayed returned similar high percentages of copper. Copper fever struck nearby Bourke and Joseph Becker quickly secured an additional 10 acre selection north and south of the initial mineral selection in May and June of that year.
The full strike length of the Cobar copper lode extended over the three leases. The central lease, which covered the discovery waterhole, was situated on the richest portion of the lode. The workings of this lease became known as the Cobar Copper Mine. The lease was transferred to the Cobar Copper Mining Company which was formed in late 1870, with an issue of 200 shares set at 10 pounds each. Shares subsequently sold for up to 250 pounds a piece. The northern part of the lode, owned by Becker, became known as the North Cobar Mine. The southern portion of the lode, also owned by Becker, became the South Cobar Mine operating by South Cobar Mining Company. Later the two companies merged to form the Great Cobar Copper Mine in January 1876.
The Great Cobar Copper Mine opened in 1871 and at its peak it had fourteen smelters, a 64 metre chimney stack and employed over 2000 men. Little above ground evidence of the substantial mine workings now remain. The most obvious feature is an "open cut" or "Mullock Tank" east of Lewis Street. It was not actually a mine but a quarry from which the material was used to backfill the stopes of the mine and build up the ground level so the miners could gain access to the ore bodies above them. It was dug by hand with pick and shovel. According to stories handed down by old miners who worked the open cut, at least one horse was accidentally killed every day. At its deepest the Open Cut is 430ms.
Between 1876 and 1919 the Great Cobar produced 114,809 tonnes of copper, 9,670 kilogrames of gold and 46,700 kilograms of silver. It was during this boom that the late Victorian, early Federation administration office was built, north of the smelting heads, in 1910.
The Cobar North Mine, where the Miners Heritage Park now stands, was the "poor relation" of the Great Cobar Mine. Nevertheless, the owners continued to have faith in the mine. During the period 1910 to 1913 they undertook a considerable amount of development work at the mine, perhaps stimulated by the apparent success of the nearby Great Cobar Mine. In 1911 the North Cobar shaft had reached a depth of 466ms. Crosscuts opened up across the northern extension of the Great Cobar lode showed that the lode was improving in depth. Drives on the 1500ft (457m) level found wide zones of low grade copper ore up to 30ms of 2.3% copper, although these grades were not payable. The shaft was further deepened to 519 meters in 1913 before shaft sinking was abandoned. An inclined drive was then constructed from the 1300ft (397m) level to connect with the nearby Great Cobar workings, thereby improving the quality of ventilation in both mines.
Fortunes however crashed after World War One when the demand for copper decreased and the mined ceased operations in March 1919.
The Miners Heritage Park opened in 2002 now commemorates the "Cobar Miner". From the 1870s until today underground mining has been the predominant activity in the Cobar Mining field. In the early days the mining method was "hammer and tap" - a crude physically exhausting process which was akin to chiselling out the hard sulphide ores to make the holes for explosives. Large teams of men were required working in dark, cramped and wet conditions. The 1900s saw the introduction of machine mining which utilised hand held pneumatic drills. From the 1960s mining became more highly mechanised with the advent of mobile drilling, loading and hauling machines.
Whilst safety in underground mines is of paramount importance in today's mining operations, historically it has often been treacherous and inherently dangerous activity. Between 1870 and 2000 over 120 men lost their lives in the underground workings in the Cobar mining field. Within the Miners Park is now displayed the "Cobar Miner" a bronze cast life-size miner portrayed with a modern air leg drilling machine. The figure was designed and cast by renowned Australian sculptor Terrance Plowright and weights over 600kg. It is a commemorative memorial by the Cobar community to the contribution of miners and their families to the area.
The administration office was converted to a museum as a result of the "Museum Project", an initiative of the Cobar Rotary Club. The Club in 1967 negotiated with Cobar Mine Pty Ltd for the donation of the old office building to the Cobar Shire Council. During the following two year the Lions and Apex Clubs also joined the project. The building was finally sold by Cobar Mines Pty Ltd to the Cobar Shire Council in 1968 for a consideration of one dollar. The building now houses the Great Cobar Heritage Centre.
An excerpt from the Cobar Thematic History is reproduced below: -
The Great Cobar Heritage Centre on the Nyngan Road was formerly the office of the Great Cobar Mine and overlooks the open-cut mine that was once the mainstay of the Cobar economy. It was constructed in 1910 as an administrative building and was used in this capacity until 1920 when the company closed down the mining operations. The impressively detailed double-brick building comprised 9,000 sq feet of floor space over two-storeys. The building overlooks the main street of Cobar and the extensive balcony provides panoramic views of the area. The large and grand entrance foyer was evidence of the wealth of the mining company at this time.
The building was sold and had a number of uses including as a residence occupied by Mrs M.P. Bannister [CCC 1969: 44, 46]. In the 1950s Elizabeth ‘Bessie’ Bannister rented out the premises as flats, known locally as 'Bannister’s Flats' [Pers. comm. Cobar Historical Society 29 Sep 2006]. Cobar Mines Pty Ltd purchased the building in 1963 intending to establish a mining museum. During the construction of the CSA Mine until 1966 the building was utilised as contractors’ accommodation. A museum committee was then formed to plan the proposed museum and the title to the site was transferred to the Shire Council for a token sum of one dollar. The Rotary Club, other local service clubs, the Shire Council and a number of individuals participated in building renovations and the set-up of the museum. The museum opened in August 1968 almost a century after the discovery of copper at Cobar [CCC 1969: 44, 46].
The museum includes exhibits explaining the pastoral, agricultural, technological (mining and geology), environmental and indigenous history of Cobar and has an extensive collection of documents and photographs [CCC 1969: 44, 46]. The museum is located in the Great Cobar Miners Heritage Park which includes a mine headframe in a landscaped park maintained by the Shire Council. |