We had a trip on the award-winning Moonta Mines Tourist Railway which takes passengers on a 50 minute trip through the historic landmarks of former copper mining operations  with the driver explaining all the working of the ore sorting floor, reservoir and the tunnel through Ryan's tailing heap. $8 for Big people $4 Little people. In it's heyday Moonta had a population of over 10,000. A Mining bosses built a church and told his employees "no church on Sunday, no work on Monday. There were over 27 churches in the area. 

Ryan's Tailing Heaps - waste tailing (1.5 million tonnes) accumulated in five heaps covering 8 hectares reaching a height of 20 metres. They were nicknamed by the workers as the Moonta Himalayas. The tourist train goes through the tunnel  and you can see the tailing carts along the top ready to dump.

This picture is of the "Picking Boys" working on the conveyor belts sorting various grades of ore. Children as young as 10 worked between 8-12hrs a day for 8 pence. They were also required to attend school on Friday nights for 3 hours. Older workers also worked on sorting if they were injured and recouperating until they could go back to work.