Burra and Moonta Mines

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (14:43): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. Will the minister inform the chamber about the recent announcement of the national heritage listing of the Burra and Moonta mines?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:43): I thank the honourable member for her most excellent question. In 2006, the Cornwall and West Devon mining landscape in the United Kingdom was inscribed on the World Heritage List.

Following an approach from the proponents of this inscription, the South Australian Heritage Council nominated the Burra and Moonta mines state heritage areas for consideration by the Australian government for national heritage listing in February 2009. I am pleased to advise the council that on Monday 8 May the federal government announced the Cornish mines at Burra and Moonta would be entered onto the National Heritage List. This is fantastic news and it was well received by the local community at Burra on Monday.

The Cornish mining heritage at Burra and Moonta mines tells an important story about the technology and traditions of the Australian base metal mining industry. Cornish Australians helped to shape social institutions such as Australian Methodism and Freemasonry and fostered a distinctly Australian ethos in politics and industrial relations.

In the mid-1800s, thousands of Cornish miners flocked to Burra in the state's Mid North and Moonta on the Yorke Peninsula to mine two of the largest copper deposits in the world at that time. The world heritage listed sites in Cornwall only tell part of the story of Cornish mining history. There is a global story to be told, which includes South Australia, Spain, South Africa and Mexico. Cornwall was the centre of mining skill and innovation and was incredibly advanced at the time. In particular, the Cornish miners were experts in hard-rock mining and had an advanced method of extraction.

As the mining boom slowed in the UK, thousands of Cornish migrants left England, brought their skills to South Australia and Burra, Moonta and Wallaroo became centres of Cornish mining expertise and knowledge. The copper mines and the Cornish mining expertise led to an economic explosion and established Australia's reputation as a significant site for mining and minerals. In many ways, these sites are the birthplace of the industrial revolution in our country.

Prior to copper mining, Australia was largely an agricultural economy, but the industrial technology brought by the Cornish migrants and the discovery of copper changed all that. Burra was also the site of the first industrial strike in South Australia, making it an important place in the history of industrial relations, the birth of the labour movement and, particularly in Yorke Peninsula's case, the birth of the Australian Labor Party.

Heritage chairs and officials from other Australian states and New Zealand had their annual meeting this year in Adelaide. As part of their program they have selected Burra as their choice of heritage place to visit. I joined them on Monday and participated in a community morning tea at the Burra Railway Station to celebrate the national heritage listing, which was announced by Dr David Kemp on that morning. This event was also an opportunity for the chairs and officials to meet the local people who have proactively conserved and promoted the significance of these two places, in particular the local branches of the National Trust, the Burra History Group and the Goyder and Copper Coast councils.

National heritage listing can be incredibly beneficial for the local and state economy, for job creation in tourism, as well as contributing to the social fabric and identity of the community in which the property is located. In addition to the national heritage recognition and the sense of community pride engendered, it is hoped the national heritage listing will greatly increase tourist visitation from within the country and overseas. This provides hospitality and heritage management related employment opportunities and income for these local communities.

The Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources will work with local stakeholders to activate the heritage tourism opportunities for operators. In addition to tourism benefits, now that the sites are nationally listed, the community, owners and local councils are eligible to apply for financial assistance from the Australian government to conserve the Cornish mining heritage.

The great esteem in which a national heritage place is held by the local, national and international population can also bring about a higher level of protection for the property. The inclusion of South Australia's Cornish mining heritage sites at Burra and Moonta mines on the National Heritage List is a great achievement, opening up, potentially, a world heritage nomination for Cornwall and its history.

The sites now join only a handful of other national heritage listed sites in South Australia, including the Naracoorte Caves, the Ediacara Fossil Site at Nilpena, the Adelaide Parklands, the city layout, Witjira-Dalhousie Springs, the building we are standing in right now and also Old Parliament House.

The South Australia part of the Cornish mining heritage is now a nationally recognised example of the spread of Cornish hard-rock mining technology and a culture from Cornwall and West Devon to other countries around the world. I would like to congratulate all those involved in the nine-year process to have these sites nationally heritage listed. I look forward to seeing the tourism heritage developments in Burra and Moonta as a result of this recognition.