When the mine was exhausted and closed the population shrank dramatically and the townships, for the next 100 years, supported pastoral and agricultural activities.

The ore body was up to 70 metres (230 ft) wide and mainly consisted of green malachite and blue azurite veins and nodules amongst the host rock.

As early as July 1843, when the locality was already a sheep outstation for pastoralist William Peter of Manoora, it was known as Burrow Creek.

[8] Despite that obvious (though misspelt) connection to the indigenous Ngadjuri people, a later theory persistently postulates that it comes from the Hindustani for 'great great', used by Indians shepherds working for another early pastoralist, James Stein, to refer to creek.

[9] Traces remain with rock art and burial sites in the area and some people able to claim Ngadjuri ancestry.

On 9 June 1845 William Streair bore samples of a rich copper ore into the office of Henry Ayers, secretary of the South Australian Mining Association (SAMA).

News of the copper this heralded was published on 21 June in Adelaide newspapers, and the site was soon named The Monster Mine.

[11] Governor George Grey had amended land grant regulations forcing the hundred of Kooringa to be a 20,000-acre (8,100 ha) rectangle, placing the two copper finds at opposite ends.

[12] Due to the £20,000 (sterling) price of the land it was divided in two, with each half sold to a different group and the division decided by lot.

In 1846, 347 acres (140 ha) just north of the division was sold to the Scottish Australian Investment Company for £5,550 where they established the Bon Accord Mine.

[24] Over the life of the mine, Henry Ayers jealously preserved shareholder profits by ruthlessly controlling wages and expenses.

[20] The Bon Accord Mining Company was formed on behalf of Scottish speculators, in the expectation that the Burra lode would extend under the properties boundary.

[30] From as early as 1843 shepherding had been common around Burra, with pastoral pioneers such as James Stein and William Peter being granted grazing rights for their flocks on unsurveyed land.

[31] Over the life of the Burra Mine, most food was brought in as there was no freehold offered by SAMA on the land and no adjoining hundreds were declared until 1860.

The Burra Record had begun life as the Northern Mail, the town's first publication, which was first published on 30 June 1876.

[34] Published by Harold Du Rieue, the newspaper's coverage included the districts of Riverton, Tarlee, Rhynie and Saddleworth.

It was formed by the merger of struggling local newspapers, the Peterborough Times (2003–2006), the Burra Broadcaster (1991–2006), and the Eudunda Observer.

During a visit in October 1845 to Burra by Henry Ayers and the directors of SAMA the site of the township of Kooringa was chosen.

George Strickland Kingston surveyed and laid out the township, completing it in April 1846, and named many of the streets after directors of SAMA.

From the beginning the township was a company town, built at low cost and with insufficient housing, which forced many miners to dig makeshift homes.

During their early lives, each of the townships largely had their own hotels, churches, post offices, schools, and shops and identity.

[41] Whole families, government officials and other townspeople left for the gold fields and by 1854 the town appeared largely deserted.

[43] In September 1846 the townships had their first police force with the movement of four constables from Julia Creek to the south into temporary accommodation provided by SAMA.

In September that year, William Lang was appointed resident magistrate and coroner for the Murray District and initially housed in a company cottage in Kooringa.

The dramatic decrease at the end of mining inhibited expansion and helped preserve many of the original buildings and houses.

[52] SAMA delayed building in Redruth when they bought 77 of the 120 lots on offer at the initial land auction, paying almost 20 times the overall reserve price.

In May 1848, the company had imported from Swansea the entire smelting works comprising men, materials, tools, staff and families.

[56] New Aberdeen was subdivided after 1872 arrival of the railway line from Kapunda, and most of the early buildings in the two townships were constructed in the three years following.

Other townships that either never succeeded or had been abandoned by 1940 were Princesstown, Lostwithiel, Westbury, Roachtown, Yarwood, Millertown, Warrapoota and Clonmel.

[7] Burra today is an important regional centre for surrounding farming communities and a historic tourist destination.