Kungna Tuko A History of Kanmantoo by A. R. Mills

Kungna Tuko

A History of Kanmantoo

by A. R. Mills

Published by Author, 1981, [Signed], ISBN 0959441611, black and white photographs and plates, illustrated title page, paperback.

Fair Condition, Signed by Author on title page, reading copy only, edge and shelf wear, rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, first half doz pages loose, first sketch half missing (Blacksmiths Cottage) (see photographs)

“Time fashions our history from living memory and with considerable personal effort, events are recorded and items preserved to become part of our heritage.  A. R. Mills has meticulously gathered the living memories and confirmed with documentation and research, the material so well presented in this book.  Appropriately, the author is a member of the pioneer Mills family of Kanmantoo, fortunately for South Australia, a family which has always been sensitive to the care and preservation of the records, artefacts and buildings of another time.
The South Eastern Freeway dropping below the shoulder of Mount Barker, provides the vantage point for the panorama of beautiful ridged and folding hills.  These hills surround “Kungna Tuko” and as they dip away towards the east, become rock-spiked and denuded of natural vegetation.  The reefs of rock and the exposed strata surfaces in the road cuttings give a lead to the interesting geological structure of the region.
Below the hills, Callington links the Freeway and the Princes Highway, which leads back to Kanmantoo township and the mine, recently the scene of further activity.
Kanmantoo mine production peaked in the mid 1860s and with attendant flourishing rural activity, generated an industrious settlement, to the point of over-population.
Economics ordered the course of life and when the mine production eventually dropped, many of the Cornish and German miners and other settlers moved away to the more lucrative returns of other mines or succumbed to the shining prospects of the gold rush.
A. R. Mills gives us an enjoyable account and a factual record of life in the pioneer villages in a unique area of the Mount Lofty Ranges, which I recommend to all readers – David Worron.”