This view of the Wallaroo Smelters looks north-west towards Spencer Gulf. At the right is the huge square tower of the Hughes stack, which so dominated the scene that it became a marker for shipping, and has been retained as a permanent monument to the works. At the far right is the small stack for the Assay Office. Although the Assay Office building still stands, its stack has been demolished.

The smelters were established on the shores of the gulf in 1861, two years after the discovery of copper at Wallaroo. A jetty was built to enable the loading of copper ore and later copper ingots from the mines and smelter. The Hughes chimney, the first furnace/chimney built on the site, utilised the Welsh reverberatory method; many furnaces and their flues were connected to this stack.

A short seven years after its inception the site was described as the largest copper smelter in the world; more furnaces and their chimneys were built. Improvements in technology were made in three phases at the works, until by 1910 it had changed completely from the original Welsh process to the latest and most efficient methods from the United States. A major development was to set up a copper sulphate plant which treated the waste sulphur dioxide gas and flue deposits. Lead smelting works were added to treat Broken Hill and Tasmanian ores.

With the reduction in copper extracted from the mines, and a sharp fall in the price of copper after World War I, the decision was reached by the shareholders to close the mines and the smelters. Demolition of both mines and smelting sites proceeded to recoup money from the sale of equipment.