The Nuccaleena Mine

Copper was discovered at Nuccaleena by William Finke in the mid 1850s.
Following the raising of finance in England, the Nuccaleena Mine became partly operational in early 1860, when 100 tons of copper ore were mined in five weeks by sixteen men.
By March 1861, eighty-eight men were working at Nuccaleena, including thirty-six miners, five masons, four sawyers, two cooks and a medical officer.

The Great Northern Mining Company built a small town around the mine, with The Register newspaper reporting that at Nuccaleena in September 1861, "there is quite a township where the mechanics and miners of the company reside".

The Nuccaleena township included the Bushmen's Hotel, built by Charles Faulkner, which provided the mining community with their liquid refreshments, and a Mechanics/Miners Institute.

In 1863 J. B. Austin in his book titled The Mines of South Australia described the principal buildings of Nuccaleena, "The Captain's apartments; office and three other buildings of stone are erected on a terrace opposite the engine and present a frontage of nearly a hundred feet.
There are also Substantial stone stables, a good store, smith's shop, workshop etc.; besides a general store for supplying the wants of the miner's; also a doctor's house and about twenty good tine huts for the miners".

The Company had only produced 13 000 Pounds worth of copper ore from the Nuccaleena Mine by 1866 having expended 57 000 Pounds on the enterprise and shortly after the mine was abandoned having been an enormous failure.