Elouera, Cobar, New South Wales
Elouera was a short-lived mining township, now a ghost town, in the Orana region of New South Wales Australia.
[2][3] After colonial settlement, the area lay in the County of Robinson, Parish of Kaloogleguy.
[9] The name, 'Elouera' has been very widely applied by non-indigenous Australians, including for a beach, a surf life-saving club, a ship,[10] a race horse,[11] a colliery,[12] a housing land development,[13] numerous houses and other properties, numerous streets and a light rail station, and even as a girls' baby name.
[15] In 1905, George Blakemore, probably attempting to emulate the success of the Great Cobar Mining Syndicate, established the C.S.A.
[6] In the times before motorised transport, miners need to live close to their work and the Cobar township was over 22 km away, by road.
It was a half time school, sharing its teacher with Meryula Siding (just to the east of Cobar), from October 1915 to March 1916.
[35] Closure of the Great Cobar resulted in the loss of the source of electrical power used to supply water to the C.S.A.
The company had commissioned a second, much larger, water-jacket blast furnace near the mine, in January 1918, which gave satisfactory results producing copper matte, for subsequent smelting and refining, initially at Port Kembla.
Mine, due to an underground fire that broke out, on the afternoon of Saturday, 20 March 1920.
The location of the fire was in the timber supporting the long-abandoned silver-lead ore workings, on No.2 Level of the mine.
[43][44] Another plausible theory is that the fire was caused by heating, due to oxidisation of sulphide ore and backfill material, which then set alight Oregan timber framing supporting the old workings.
[6] The mine was sealed, in an attempt to extinguish the fire, and initially smelting operations continued.
[46] When the mine was unsealed on 3 May 1920, it was found to be full of dangerous gases, and could only be inspected by men wearing 'Proto smoke helmets', an early type of self-contained breathing apparatus.
The fire broke out again, around 6 May 1920, and spread further into the workings, propelled by flaming carbon monoxide gases.
That had not happened, by 30 June 1920, when rainfall provided water, which was then used in an attempt to flood the mine,[47][48][49] apparently without success.
[50] Once it was clear that the mine would not reopen Elouera's inhabitants, amenities, and businesses departed rapidly.
[46] As work for miners disappeared, buildings were removed, from Wrightville and Cobar, to be re-erected in more prosperous places,[56] and the same probably happened at Elourera.
In 1934, it was reported the disused railway line was to be repaired, so that equipment could be removed from the mine site.
mine sparked a revival in the fortunes of Cobar,[65] but the old settlement of Elouera was only a memory by then.
[68][69] Nothing remains of the old mining settlement, except for the map of its street plan, although the site of the town and its 'tank', or water supply, still can be discerned in aerial views.
