Map The Miner

Map the Miner, also known as Map Kernow, is a 7-meter-tall statue located at the southern entrance of Kapunda, South Australia.

It was erected to commemorate the important role played by Cornish miners in the town, particularly during the operation of the Kapunda copper mine in the mid-1800s.

The Kapunda copper mine was highly successful, generating over £1 million worth of copper ore between 1844 and 1878, with many Cornish immigrants contributing to its success. In 1986, local resident John Davidson proposed the idea of a memorial to honor their contribution. Despite unsuccessful funding attempts, Dutch artist Ben van Zetten was enlisted to design and create the statue. Through a community fundraising campaign led by the local Rotary Club, the statue was constructed and opened in 1988 during Australia's Bicentenary celebrations. The original artist, Ben van Zetten, along with Lawry Love Grima, rebuilt the statue, which was rededicated on the same site in June 2007, just over a year after its destruction.

The statue depicts a mid-nineteenth-century miner wearing a felt hat and holding a mallet in one hand and a pick over his shoulder. The original statue featured a candle attached to the miner's hat, with spare candles worn around his neck. The statue's core consisted of a steel frame attached to a concrete base, with fiberglass layered over it using freehand grinding and chipping techniques. The new version of