Haul of Fame
Cornish miners burrowed into Burra, chasing copper in the 1850s. But the principal snag was water, and not a decent pump to be found.
So the mining company imported an ‘engine house’ from Cornwall, essentially a pump about the size of Liechtenstein.
Of course, this created the next problem. No vehicle in the colony could haul the 15-ton contraption inland. Hence necessity mothered the mother of all jinkers, a 10-metre monster that equates to the road train of its day.
From stem to stern it weighed over 4 tons and required 72 bullocks to pull, and remains one of the biggest rigs in the pre-Kenilworth era. [Parked on Market Street, near the centre of Burra.]