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Back Roads S12E05
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00:12Oh, look like I'm straight out of the 1860s.
00:16Backroads is off to join in the fun of the Cornish Festival
00:19on the Copper Coast of South Australia.
00:27It's surprising that right here, outside Cornwall,
00:31they hold the biggest Cornish festival in the world.
00:35It's a legacy of the thousands of miners
00:38who left a depressed Cornwall in the 1860s,
00:42enduring an arduous ten weeks
00:44for new opportunities on the Copper Coast.
00:47It's just west of Adelaide,
00:49with the bustling towns of Kadena, Munta and Wallaroo.
00:54And one, two, three, four...
00:58I'm here just as they're finishing
00:59all the preparations for the festival,
01:01which started over 50 years ago.
01:04This looks hard.
01:07Left, right, that's it.
01:09I feel like having a jig too.
01:11And then I'm gonna turn and we go one, two...
01:15It's a massive community effort.
01:18Oh, foul.
01:19It's not gonna fit me though.
01:21Oh, sorry.
01:22Ow.
01:23Sorry.
01:24Ow.
01:24There's probably about 40 mums doing the exact same thing right now.
01:28Better get out of the way, the parade's coming.
01:30I'm Paul West, and I'm on the Copper Coast
01:33to see why they make such a fuss about all things Cornish.
01:36And if there's enough people, with enough push,
01:39to go for another 50 years.
01:42Welcome to Colonel MacLawenza!
01:45Ha-ha-ha!
01:46Ha-ha-ha!
01:55The big week really kicks off in the town of Munta,
01:58with a grand parade.
02:05I'm told the name of the festival means Cornish happiness.
02:10I don't know much about the Cornish, except they love pasties,
02:13so I'm keen to find out more.
02:17I can see this as a showcase of history and legend.
02:22Give us your goal!
02:24Yay!
02:25Yay!
02:26Apparently, real life pirates really did raid the Cornish town of Penzance
02:30hundreds of years ago.
02:31Who knew?
02:37Well, g'day, you two certainly look the part.
02:39Are you locals?
02:40We are.
02:40Our children are in the parade here today.
02:43Here she comes now!
02:45Here she comes!
02:46Oh, g'day, g'day Scarlett!
02:48And Jake is on the picky boy float.
02:51Oh, look at the little legends up there.
02:53So what are they doing up there?
02:54So they're sorting all the ore for the mines,
02:57and they've got their Cornish flags, and yeah.
03:00So even the little kids would be working in the mines?
03:03Yes.
03:04And how far from town here would the Munta mine be?
03:07Only a couple of k's.
03:09There's actually lots of underground tunnels still to this day.
03:14This is the history behind all the hoopla.
03:27The old mine just outside Munta, with mountains of tailings,
03:31is the key to the area's Cornishness.
03:34It was rich with copper.
03:36It was huge.
03:37And from the 1860s, it shaped the culture here.
03:51As head of the local National Trust,
03:53this mine has been Graeme Hancock's passion for the last 15 years.
03:58Copper mining actually began in South Australia
04:02before it went to other parts of Australia.
04:05There's not much he doesn't know about the skill of Cornish miners.
04:12It was said that at any hard rock mine in the world,
04:16you could always find a Cornishman at the bottom.
04:19So they had a real reputation.
04:23I'm learning that the Cornish had been miners for thousands of years,
04:27since the Bronze Age.
04:29So they found the copper here...
04:32Yes.
04:33..and then put the call out for Cornish miners to come to Australia.
04:37Absolutely. A major immigration program.
04:40Yeah.
04:40We were talking a population here of 12,000 to 13,000 people.
04:46Yeah.
04:48I can just picture this place pumping in its heyday.
04:55It was the first Australian mine to make a million pounds,
04:58and it fuelled the early South Australian economy.
05:06How significant a site was this mine here?
05:10It is of world significance
05:13because it was one of the biggest mining areas
05:16for copper in the world.
05:23Well, this was purely built as a water pump in 1865.
05:30Graham kept up the campaign for recognition,
05:32and now the mine's been shortlisted for World Heritage status.
05:38These ruins are Richmond's engine house.
05:41So this is the beating heart of the mine?
05:43It is the beating heart of the mine.
05:46The heritage listing will keep the history alive
05:49and the Cornish culture meaningful for future generations.
05:53Now here, from the inside, of course, you can look up and see
05:57exactly where the Cornish beam engine was perched.
06:01In here was world-leading technology,
06:04invented, of course, by Cornish engineers.
06:07Steam-driven cylinder here, the bob,
06:11connected to the winding equipment.
06:15They pumped out groundwater so mining could go deeper and deeper.
06:20The innovations here actually did change the face of mining around the world.
06:28It's Cornish innovation, it's Cornish endurance, if you like,
06:33that exists and oozes out of every relict that you see.
06:36And people, as we go forward with World Heritage listing,
06:41more people will see our place in the world today.
06:49But there is a darker side to the Cornish miners' story.
06:54Boys as young as 10 work sorting through a ton of ore every shift.
06:59This is the grim reality behind the picky boy kids I saw earlier in the parade.
07:05Many local families have a picky boy in their history.
07:10Up in the nearby town of Kadena, I'm meeting Paul and Liz Rowan.
07:15Paul's grandfather, Reg, became a picky boy.
07:17And Paul has Reg's precious keepsakes safely tucked away.
07:24That's how I remember him as a young boy.
07:29We'd go out the mines and he'd show us everything.
07:32He started off as a picky boy.
07:36He was 14 years of age when he started that.
07:39And then, you know, upgraded up through the ranks and become a miner.
07:43And then that's when he was a bit of a younger man with his movie camera.
07:48Yeah, he looks like a movie star.
07:49He's a dashing-looking chap.
07:51Yeah, a bit like me.
07:52Yeah, Apple doesn't fall far from the tree there, Paul.
07:55No.
07:55There's another one.
07:56Paul and Liz retired to Kadena after a life of farming nearby.
08:01But memories of Reg and the mines left a deep impact on the family.
08:07Incredible.
08:08I mean, they're so striking.
08:09It's so crystal clear.
08:11Yeah.
08:12He was a keen photographer in the early days.
08:14Yeah.
08:14Reg helped the official photographer at the Wallaroo mines in the early 1900s
08:18and left these incredible glass photos.
08:23It's huge.
08:24Yeah, absolutely.
08:25Yeah.
08:26Because you don't really get a sense of that now.
08:28No.
08:29It's all gone.
08:30That's an underground shot.
08:32Oh, wow.
08:34I mean, so these are the conditions that they were working in.
08:38And this could be 100 metres underground with no electricity.
08:41Yeah.
08:42So these guys are doing this work by hand, by candlelight.
08:46Yeah.
08:47It looks like a hard job.
08:48Yeah.
08:49The conditions of the mines were terrible.
08:51With an article.
08:52And some of his words on that were,
08:57they worked wet the skin in awful temperatures.
09:01And when they were killed on the job,
09:03their widows got one day's pay in compensation.
09:06One day's pay.
09:08And if they survived the mines, they often died young of the dust.
09:14Liz has Cornish ancestors too.
09:17Her great-great-grandfather also worked at the Wallaroo mines.
09:21Unfortunately, he was killed in the mines.
09:23They were setting up some blasting and the blast wasn't successful.
09:28So leaving a widow, which would have been my great-great-grandma,
09:33and a young family.
09:35Geez, we've got it easy now, don't we?
09:37We do.
09:38We do.
09:43The Copper Coast is changing.
09:46It's becoming a hot coastal destination,
09:49with hundreds of new people moving in.
09:52And I wonder if that will affect the area's love of Cornishness.
09:57The town of Wallaroo is where they once smelted the copper
10:00and shipped it out.
10:04Today, there's a favourite festival event at the Wallaroo Church Hall,
10:08and I think it's sure to keep drawing in the crowds.
10:11I've come to lend a hand.
10:16OK.
10:18Glad you're here.
10:19Extra pair of hands is always welcome.
10:22What are we making today?
10:23We're making pasties, according to an old Cornish recipe
10:28that my great-grandmother brought with her from Cornwall.
10:31June Ladner is not only a uniting church minister,
10:34she's Cornish up to her pasty-making elbows.
10:38So would the miners used to take the pasties down the mines of them?
10:42Yep.
10:43It was probably the first takeaway food, a pasty.
10:46And how specific is the recipe?
10:49Very specific.
10:50You don't put carrots in Cornish pasties.
10:52Oh, OK.
10:53Yeah.
10:53Oh, yeah.
10:54It can be civil war.
10:57So it's steeped in tradition then, making pasties.
11:00Oh, absolutely.
11:00Absolutely.
11:02June's grandparents and her eight great-grandparents were all Cornish.
11:08What kind of characteristics do the Cornish folk have?
11:12They're pretty resilient.
11:15They're stubborn.
11:17That describes me pretty well.
11:19And I think our expression, you know, Jack's as good as his master,
11:24is definitely Cornish.
11:25They would not kowtow to anyone.
11:28Yeah.
11:28Yeah.
11:29Sounds like they're really proud people.
11:30Proud, independent, stubborn.
11:34Yeah.
11:36Turns out today is a sell-out with 50 eager and hungry students.
11:41Well, I'm going to be picking your brain for pasty-making wisdom today, Wendy.
11:45It looks like you've made a few over the years.
11:47Yeah.
11:48Just a couple.
11:50You're going to have my pasty goal.
11:54Liz, good to see you.
11:56I do have friends.
11:57Here's Liz, who I met earlier with her husband, Paul.
12:00This is the first time I've actually taken part in this.
12:05And I thought, well, why not?
12:07You're never too old to learn something different.
12:10Right.
12:11School's in.
12:13So the first thing you do is you tip in the flour and the dripping.
12:19Now it's time to get down and get dirty.
12:23You never, never, never, never, ever dice.
12:28The meat do not mince.
12:31It's supposed to be quarter inch cubes.
12:33It was poverty cooking.
12:36It was poverty cooking.
12:37They were very, very poor.
12:39They worked very hard.
12:41And they were very poor.
12:42All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're up to the last and final step.
12:49Move it towards you.
12:51Squeeze.
12:53Squeeze before and after.
12:57I'm pretty happy with that.
12:58I hope it tastes as good as it looks.
13:00I wonder how the Cornish feel about tomato sauce.
13:03The girls will be coming around with the trays now.
13:07This is all good fun.
13:08Trouble.
13:10I think that it's really important for everyone to know who they are
13:13and where they've come from.
13:14It saves you from making some stupid decisions.
13:18It centres your life.
13:20You can't drift if you know who you are.
13:23Do you think people are a bit adrift?
13:25Oh, yes.
13:27All over the place.
13:28All over the place.
13:30That isn't a problem right here.
13:32Knowing who you are is what the massive effort going into the festival is all about.
13:44Now for the moment of truth.
13:47Had a blowout.
13:48Epic fail.
13:49See?
13:50Not too bad.
13:51It's still going to taste good though.
13:52It'll be okay.
13:53It'll be okay.
13:57Damn, that's come up good.
13:59Hell yeah.
14:00It smells good.
14:02What do you reckon?
14:04I reckon you're top of the class.
14:06Oh, that's what I want to hear.
14:08Oh, you're just saying that, dude.
14:11That's come up good.
14:12If anyone else asks me, I'll say the same.
14:18I'm getting to understand that although they were at the other side of the world, Cornish ties to the homeland
14:23stayed strong.
14:27Cornwall was famously the land of King Arthur, rich in folklore and myth.
14:34Their Celtic language and culture was suppressed by the English for centuries.
14:39They fought to keep it, but lost.
14:42Till finally, early last century, it was revived.
14:53The language is cousin to Irish and Welsh.
14:56It lives again.
15:02The Cornish bards uphold the culture and tap into its ancient roots.
15:07Do it, although a winner is craze.
15:13Craze!
15:15Sometimes rituals take you into strange realms, and I'm keen to delve into this mystical world.
15:31Hello.
15:32G'day, Lillian.
15:33Hello, Paul.
15:35It's nice to see you.
15:35There are even Cornish bards in Australia.
15:38I found one of the oldest living bards, Lillian James, right here in the town of Moonta.
15:45It's an honour to become a bard of Cornwall.
15:48It's a part of the culture.
15:50They kept the stories, the poems, the songs alive.
16:07I was made by it in 1988.
16:12Lillian James, Courtney Owl, Mrs. James is the first Australian woman to have passed all her examinations in Cornwall.
16:25It's a marvellous ceremony.
16:29The first ceremony is something that you never, never, ever forget.
16:38There we were, bards.
16:40We're sending our message to the world.
16:43Pray what is due, I pray there.
16:48Colonel, pray for the answer.
17:00And this is the national tartan.
17:02Now in her 90s, Lillian spent a long time tapping into her own Cornish roots.
17:09That's my grandfather.
17:11And he was a foreman in the Moonta mines.
17:14Fluent Cornish was long gone by the time Lillian's grandfather arrived in Australia in the 1870s.
17:21So my mother didn't know any Cornish language and my grandmother either when she came from Cornwall.
17:28Lillian wanted to reverse this loss.
17:31After retiring from high school teaching, she signed up for a language course.
17:35The study of the Cornish language is for four years.
17:40I just used tapes and I would do my ironing and my boys and their dad would go off to
17:48football
17:48and I'd be ironing and saying all these Cornish words as I'm ironing them.
18:06She's written a book of stories entirely in Cornish and has taught language classes at the festival for decades.
18:17Why do you think it's so important to keep the language alive?
18:21Cornwall loses its language, it loses the soul of its country.
18:26May's pan stanky as thin.
18:28Cornish rolls off Lillian's tongue so beautifully.
18:32It's not for the faint-hearted, but I'm up for the challenge.
18:38Would you like to learn some Cornish language?
18:40I'd love to learn some Cornish, yeah.
18:42Just a simple little sentence, so perhaps we'll say thank you and goodbye.
18:47Muras.
18:49Muras.
18:50Ha.
18:51Which is and.
18:52Ha.
18:53Duganis.
18:55Muras.
18:56Ha.
18:56Duganis.
18:57Duganis.
18:58Deworth.
18:59Deworth.
19:00Which is from Knewick Lawenda.
19:03Okay.
19:04Pfff.
19:06Muras.
19:07Muras.
19:08Ha.
19:09Duganis.
19:11From Deworth.
19:12Deworth.
19:13Knewick Lawenda.
19:15Well done.
19:17Oh, you're a great teacher, Lillian.
19:20What about if I wanted to celebrate, how would you say, cheers?
19:25Yah-hiz-da.
19:26Good health.
19:27Yah-hiz-da.
19:29Yah-hiz-da.
19:31Yah-hiz-da.
19:32It's hard not to be lifted up by the passion and high spirits of people like Lillian.
19:41Back at the festival, crowds are gathering for the Merry Maypole with its celebration of
19:46spring, its abundance, and its weather.
19:51Gotta rain.
19:52You want it to rain?
19:53Set up a Maypole.
19:54It'll rain.
19:55Give it up.
19:56And I'm raring to join in.
19:58Do you think I could borrow you, please?
20:00Sure.
20:01Can you come and sit and wait for the pole for me?
20:04Do you think I'm qualified?
20:05I think you'll have this completely under control.
20:08All right.
20:17Being a wait for a Maypole isn't something I've tried before, but it feels kind of nice
20:22to be in the middle of a pagan tradition and usher in the warm summer months, even if
20:27we are drowning.
20:29Well done.
20:30Keep it going.
20:32Nine.
20:33Ten.
20:33Tegan's a local high school teacher and loves the festival.
20:37She's super keen to see the younger generation getting involved.
20:46It looks like that if you get one person gets it wrong, it could be chaos around the Maypole.
20:52It can be, but we tell the children we keep going.
20:56We just smile and skip without ribbons if we have to.
21:00Sounds like great advice for life.
21:01Just smile and keep skipping.
21:03Keep on going.
21:06What does it mean to you to see your daughters out here doing it?
21:10It fulfills my heart.
21:13I adored doing this as a child and getting my hair done with mum and mum making my dresses.
21:21Were you looking sharp today, Kenzie?
21:23Yep.
21:23Do you like the dress that Nem made you?
21:26Yep, very much.
21:27I do really love it.
21:32I hope that this continues and technology doesn't take over and that people continue the heritage
21:39no matter if they're Cornish or not.
21:42I hope this means the festival has a bright future.
21:47Is this something you think you'll be involved in into the future?
21:49I really hope so.
21:50I would love to keep going with it.
21:54I reckon music and dance must have brought huge joy to the Cornish migrants of the 1800s.
22:03But their everyday life was quite different.
22:12Across the parched plains just out of Kadena, where pioneer farmers once laboured,
22:17the festival is taking a strange turn.
22:33We're here at the graveside of Emily Annie Price.
22:38A cemetery isn't your typical festival venue, and this dressing of the graves event is unique
22:45and quite a Cornish thing to do.
22:48Anyone can nominate an ancestor, and then we hear a story of their life.
22:54Emily's life was tragically cut short.
22:58During her second pregnancy, Emily succumbed to the illness of toxemia.
23:03Pastie maker June Ladner is in her Uniting Church role today.
23:08She tells me the early settlers battled so their kids could have a better future.
23:14Her untimely death was a profound loss to the family and the community that had known her.
23:25We've had grandchildren and great-grandchildren who've turned up because this is their family's story.
23:33This is where they come from. This is who they are.
23:37They're able to say who they are because the family and community connection has been kept alive.
23:44At each grave a floral tribute is laid and a citation read...
23:48Are the Cornish a religious people?
23:51Historically, they're superstitious.
23:55They're fae.
23:57They have premonitions that are right.
24:02And there are probably more saints names of towns in Cornwall than there are anywhere else in the world.
24:10Even though Emily Price wasn't Cornish, the ceremony is open for anyone.
24:16Her descendants tell me it's quite a moving experience.
24:20We're here to honour Emily Price, who is my great-grandmother.
24:28My grandfather never knew where his mother was buried until he was 45.
24:33And he drove past the cemetery while he farmed the land out here.
24:37Pup was beautiful. He's up there watching us today.
24:42And do you think it's a little bit odd to have a ceremony like this, dressing graves as a part
24:47of a festival?
24:49No, I don't.
24:50It's history.
24:52History's got to come from death and life and it's an evolving cycle, isn't it, of life.
25:01Yeah, it's what builds the community and keeps it going.
25:06History and community are coming together in Kadena today.
25:10The whole festival's really opened my eyes to what it means to be Cornish.
25:18And it's impressive to see after 50 years of celebrating, that identity is a heritage everyone can share.
25:25Cornish or not.
25:33The mines might have closed long ago and the times are definitely changing.
25:37But I've got a sense that that Cornish spirit of hard work and community will live on here for many
25:43years to come.
25:52Now that's really something to dance about.
25:55And I'm told this one, the furry dance, is as Cornish as it gets.
26:07I really hope to see that this festival continues to flourish and grow.
26:13I hope to follow in Dad's footsteps and make my mark on the committee one day.
26:20Our state was virtually built on the wealth that come from these mines.
26:25So there's just a lot here and it's something to be cherished, I think.
26:34It's there for them to appreciate, to value and to continue with Canoe at Lowendor.
26:43I just hope it continues.
27:00Sorry, Lillian, I'll keep practicing.
27:12Next time, I'm in Ganga.
27:16A Queensland town that's crazy about citrus.
27:20It pretty much is State of Oranges.
27:23State of Oranges.
27:28And where I give it my best shot to fit in with some of the locals.
27:34Down it goes.
27:36I can't feel my lips anymore.
27:38Oh, wow.
27:40This is for a long, long, long.
27:40Oh!
27:43I can't feel my lips anymore.
27:44I can't feel my lips anymore.
27:44In the UK, I can feel my lips, but I don't feel my lips.
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