Sarah Herrmann, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

Calls for increased local consultation as part of the progressing Moonta Mines World Heritage bid were made at a community forum last week.

The forum gave those interested the opportunity to quiz UK-based World Heritage consultant Barry Gamble, who had travelled to the Copper Coast for the official celebration of the tentative listing (see YPCT 26-11-24).

At the Moonta Town Hall on November 25, local history enthusiast and National Trust of South Australia Moonta branch committee member John Andrew told Mr Gamble it was integral to use the local branch’s expertise to ensure accuracy.

Mr Andrew said he was concerned a lack of consultation with the branch could worsen, with NTSA’s head office part of the consortium with Copper Coast Council and the Regional Council of Goyder, plus the State and Federal Governments entering the picture.

“That consultation should start very early in the piece, because some of us are approaching 80 years of age and we can’t continue forever,” Mr Andrew said.

In response to a question from technology entrepreneur Lyndsey Jackson about planning for increased tourism, Mr Gamble said it wouldn’t just benefit Moonta Mines, but also Wallaroo Mines, the rest of the region, and the state more broadly.

For the first two years after being listed, visitation numbers would likely double from their current level, then drop, plateau at about 1.5 times the current level, and then incrementally build, he said.

“The best thing to do is to get a group of interested businesses and community members together and … identify what those opportunities might be,” he said.

Mr Gamble also responded to YPCT’s question about working with Narungga Nation Aboriginal Corporation around tourism and truth-telling, saying he wasn’t an expert but was eager to understand their voice as the “first cultural layer in the landscape”.

He said he had worked with Indigenous cultures on World Heritage bids before, including the Inuit in Canada, Denmark and Greenland; Native Americans in the US; and First Nations peoples in Victoria.

“Those documents will be online forever, and you’ll have generations of researchers going to this documentation, so it has to be factual and not distorted, but proportionate also.”

What’s next

Mr Gamble said, with continued support from local, state and national levels, he expected Moonta Mines to be World Heritage-listed in about five years.

He said this provided necessary time to complete safety, conservation and presentation works, and plan for the future.

“You’ve got old barbed wire; you’ve still got rubbish in the shafts from decades and decades ago.

“You’ve done a huge amount of conservation, but there’s still more to do.

“One day it’d be great to get people back up onto the Richmond skipheap; you can only see the line of the load from an elevated position.”

The next step in the official application process is to submit a nomination dossier to UNESCO by September 2025.

Pink paint in heritage area

A building recently painted pink in Moonta Mines is to be “immediately corrected” to its original colour.

A structure adjoining the Moonta Mines Sweet Shop — which is part of the current state and national heritage-listed precinct — was painted without permission, according to Copper Coast Council and the National Trust of South Australia Moonta branch.

“Council wasn’t aware of the painting, and did not authorise the work,” CCC said in a statement. “This is a compliance matter, and council is in communication with the relevant parties.”

A NTSA Moonta branch spokesperson said the painting had been done in error and was to be immediately corrected.

Any development, including painting, within a State Heritage Area must be approved by the relevant planning authority, according to the Department of Environment website.  

This article appeared in  Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 3 December 2024.