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The world’s largest Cornish Festival is celebrated in South Australia’s Copper Coast every 2 years. Rich in Cornish heritage, the towns of Moonta, Wallaroo and Kadina, known as ‘Australia’s Little Cornwall’, host the week-long Kernewek Lowender – which translates from the Cornish language to English as ‘Cornish Happiness’. Visitors can experience the Cornish impact on this region all-year-round by visiting the Moonta Mines State Heritage area, Wheal Hughes Copper Mine, indulging in a locally baked Cornish Pasty.
Moonta Mines Museum, Local and Family History Centre at the School of Mines, Hughes Engine House, Moonta Mines Tourist Railway (including Historic Horse Drawn Tram, Blacksmith Shop), Miners Cottage & Garden, Moonta Mines Sweet Shop, Richmans Engine House, Old Railway Station (Moonta Tourist Office). In 2024, it was added to the tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage along with nearby Burra.
Dress up like a miner in a hard hat, cap lamp and boots for the underground mine tour and head into the large underground tunnel that descends 55 m below the surface. The miners of the 1800s pioneered these copper mines. Cathedral-like workings ('stopes') can be seen above the fools gold glittering in the walls of the mine tunnel along with blue patches of copper leaching through the walls. Bookings are essential at the Moonta Information Centre.