The weather this morning was still cloudy but at least the wind settled. We spent the morning visiting the sights we missed last night, including the ruins of Hampton village and the gaol. Here are some photos of the town and a paddock of unusual white kangaroos.

The town in unusual because the buildings and general presentation vary from beautifully preserved to messy and falling apart, often in the same street.

The township of Hampton is just outside of Burra and was founded by Thomas Powell in 1857 and named after the home town of his wife in England. It was modeled on an English village and was home to 30 miners’ cottages and a Bible Christian Chapel. Hampton was the site of stone quarries that supplied stone for many of Burra’s buildings. It was virtually abandoned in the 1920s with its last inhabitant leaving in the 1960s. 

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Erected in 1856 it was the first gaol in SA outside of Adelaide. It provided for thirty prisoners, male and female. When the gaol closed in 1897, the prisoners were transferred to Gladstone Gaol.
The gaol was renovated and opened as a Girls’ Reformatory in 1897 and closed in 1922. It is now in the care of the National Trust. Unfortunately we did not have a key and with the class shards on the walls and locked doors breaking in would have been as difficult as breaking out!

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