WALLAROO MUSEUM: In the Yorke Peninsula Region of South Australia

As you wander around Wallaroo today you might think little has changed. Ships from across the other side of the world still call in to pick up Yorke Peninsula grain from the town jetty. But to really appreciate how this key Yorke Peninsula town has evolved you need to step back in time into the Wallaroo Heritage and Nautical Museum.

The smoke stacks point to a time when the Peninsula was processing some of the best quality copper in the world from the nearby Wallaroo and Moonta mines. According to the Museum's Colin Boase, the copper industry remains an important part of Wallaroo's heritage:

"That was the reason why Wallaroo came into being. And that was a large copper ingot made at the Wallaroo copper smelters which operated between 1861 and 1923. That particular ingot was discovered at the bottom of the sea. It had fallen off the jetty while loading in the early nineteen hundreds and wasn't found again the late nineteen seventies by a couple of divers."

In it's heyday more than a thousand men and boys worked at Wallaroo and when you examine the early museum photos you realise environmental issues weren't high on the agenda.

"Pollution was at it's height in the early nineteen hundreds with thirteen smelters belching smoke. There's only one large chimney left. The original one that was built in 1861."

In 1923 the last copper smelter had closed. By then another industry had taken its place. Again ships were cueing at the town wharf to take bagged wheat and barley to Europe.

Many of these majestic sailing ships were owned by Gustaf Erikson from Mariehamn in the Alan Islands off the coast of Finland. From the 1920s until as late as 1949 Erikson's fleet of windjammers regularly made the run around Cape Horn and across the world to Spencer Gulf. And in doing so they established links between South Australia and Finland which still live on today. Colin shows an example - a miniature ship in a bottle.

"This one was made on a voyage from Finland to Wallaroo in 1935 and this was made by one of the cadets. And he left it on the doorstep a few years ago and he would have been in his late seventies then and that was left to the museum. Later a letter arrived to say what it was and how he'd made it on his voyage to Wallaroo in 1935."

Momentos from these epic journeys are scattered throughout the museum. But for much of the time, these young sailors were risking their lives in heavy seas as they set sail for England with their shipments of grain from various parts of the Peninsula. Soon competition between the various crews was at its peak.

"The grain races were a competition by the crews of the Erikson fleet to see who could get to the home port in the quickest time. For example in 1931 the Herzogin Cecile took ninety three days to go from Wallaroo to Falmouth. And in 1930 the Pommern took ninety one days to go from Wallaroo to Falmouth."

But when on leave in Wallaroo the young European sailors were never far from the water. Soon they developed close friendships with the locals and when not taking part in one of the Great Grain Races, Finish crews from vessels like the Abraham Rydberg were staging their own international rowing regattas with the lads from the Peninsula. As Colin explains there are number of photographs depicting the competitions:

"That's the McKee. It's one of the original rowing club boats and it dates from 1910. It was used by a bunch of local Wallaroo lads to take on a crew from the Abraham Rydberg. They rowed from one end of the jetty to the other."

For the record the locals won and their photos still take pride of place in the Wallaroo Hertiage and Nautical Museum. It's located on Jetty Road and is open four days a week. For bookings contact 8823 3015. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards.sa.com.au