Blinman Mine Tour: Top tips for touring with a little kid

Blinman is on Adnyamathanha Country.

Is Blinman worth a visit?

Blinman is an excellent Flinders Ranges day trip, with a full-day of family-friendly activities to do. Start your morning with a Blinman Mine Tour then see more of the mine’s history in the short self-guided walk above ground. We booked a 10:00AM tour which was perfectly timed for lunch at the Miner’s Crib Bakery.

The traditional Cornish Pasty comes highly recommended, even our toddler just about polished hers off - although she wasn’t a fan of the apple end for dessert! The cafe also does great milkshakes and sweet treats along with the usual pies and sausages rolls. There’s some nice souvenirs for sale too (just double check the price of those cuddly toys before saying yes…).

If you’re travelling up from Wilpena Pound, the drive from Wilpena to Blinman is quite scenic - although also winding and slow with many creek crossings. You’ll need to factor in road conditions when calculating travel time to Blinman.

Whilst you’re in town, head around the corner to Wadna, a family-owned business run by Adnyamathanha man Kristian Coulthard and his wife Gaby. Their shop has a beautiful array of Aboriginal artefacts, paintings and handmade crafts. Kirstian also runs Aboriginal Culture tours which come highly recommended and book out months in advance.

Is the Blinman Mine Tour family-friendly?

Yes, this tour will suit most families.

Whilst there are no age restrictions, all participants must wear a helmet for the duration of the tour, including any children on tour. I wouldn’t recommend a tour for babies under 12 months for this reason.

Children need to walk along the path or be carried. This tour is not suitable for prams or mobility aids.

I expected our toddler to walk most of the tour but ended up carrying her in my arms for pretty much the full hour. We have a soft carrier, but I doubt she would have coped with being carried on my back in a strange, dark place.

Our guide was very accommodating and didn’t mind at all having a toddler on tour. He said they often had families and school groups, so I imagine the guides would be well-used to working with kids.

How long is the Blinman Mine Tour?

About an hour. The tour runs at a leisurely pace, with plenty of stops. There’s also a short self-guided walk above ground if you’ve got plenty of time and kid-supervising-stamina.

Blinman Mine self-guided walking tour, looking back at the Blinman Village.

Tips for taking a toddler on the Blinman Mine Tour

Before the tour:

You’ll arrive at the Mine Office first to pay for the tour, pick up name tags and likely meet your tour guide. This only takes about 5-10 minutes. The actual tour begins at the Blinman Mine site about 1 km down the road.

We made sure to provide a snack before the tour - and tried to make it something our toddler reliably eats. Somehow little kids sense when you’re on a mission and eat incredibly slowly. We arrived with just enough time to change a nappy and throw some stuff in a backpack.

We allowed our toddler to wander around during the introduction to the mine, making sure one parents was supervising and the other was listening to instructions. There’s enough space around for a quick play, so it’d be great to arrive at the site with 15 minutes spare for running off some energy at the last minute.

Using a baby carrier on the Blinman Mine Tour:

• A soft carrier will be just fine during the mine tour, but the passageways can be narrow. It may be difficult to lift a toddler in and out of a carrier on your back in a small space

• Your toddler will need to wear a helmet throughout the tour. I’m not sure this would be comfortable in our carrier, best to use your own judgement.

• The ground surface is generally smooth and gently sloped. Most confident walkers will be fine to walk along the path. There are only a few displays on the ground or within reach of kids.

• Despite having a confident walker, I carried our toddler almost the full duration of the tour. She needed comfort and support in the unfamiliar environment and probably wouldn’t have stayed on my back in a carrier anyway.

What to expect heading into the mine:

When you enter the mine, you’ll need to hang up the name tag you’ll get at the office. I don’t recommend giving these to your toddler! It’s hard to convince a 1 year old to give up their new prize. Tagging in and out is part of the mine’s safety protocol.

Next it’ll be time to pop on helmets. This is probably going to be the trickiest part for many young toddlers, especially if they haven’t worn a helmet before. We knew this way going to be an issue and did some work in the lead up to have our daughter prepared.

Tips for getting your toddler to wear a helmet:

• Talk about wearing helmets to protect your head and tell your child they will need to wear one on tour. Everyone on tour will be wearing a helmet

• Look at pictures of people wearing helmets. Our toddler loves diggers, so we have a ‘Bob the Builder’ book and looked at the hard hats in there.

• When you get to the tour office, show your child pictures of people on tour. Point out the helmets.

• The helmets provided for children are standard bike helmets. If you’ve got one at home, practice wearing a helmet before you go on tour.

• Does your child have a helmet? Ask when booking if your child can wear their own helmet on tour.

• Wear a sunhat or a very thin beanie under the helmet. This will also help if the helmet is a little large.

We started practising with a helmet a few weeks before because our toddler happened to get a balance bike then.

We talked about helmets and looked at pictures a few times a day for about 5 minutes in the 3 days leading up to the tour.

During the Blinman Mine Tour:

The tour stops frequently with the guide chatting about features of the mine, directing where to point torches and have a good look. Your toddler might enjoy pointing the torch, watching others on the tour and listening to the tour guide.

During some sections, the tour guide will direct the group to turn off all torches. This is an extremely effective way of focusing the senses and it’s incredible to think the miners working by candle light. It’s also very unsettling and when most children (including older kids) are likely to become upset.

Managing fears of the dark:

• Get your child excited using a torch. Practice using a torch in a familiar space (their bedroom, around your campsite) before the tour.

• Bring your own small torch for your child. Torches are provided but they’re too large and heavy for small hands.

• Ask your tour guide to warn you when they plan to have torches off. Stay further back in the passage and keep your torch ON. The rest of the lights will turn off but there won’t be a noticeable drop in light for your child.

• Keep quietly chatting as you wait to rejoin the group. Talk about the mine tour, your plans for the rest of the day or something else that interests your child.

• If your child is very afraid of the dark and likely to become upset, consider whether this tour is suitable for your family

We didn’t ask the tour guide for  specifically for warnings at each stop, but I wish we had. The first time I heard the instruction for torches off, I had enough time to discretely backtrack and hang out in a pocket of light from a mine shaft.

The second time, I missed the instruction and suddenly the it was time to turn torches off. Stuck in the middle of the group, I decided to see what would happen. I could feel my toddler tense and hear her fast breathing before she started crying. Realising she was about to become upset, I turned the torch back on and hurried up the passageway with my husband.

She became really quite upset. We paused and pulled out her straw cup and a big drink of water helped. The snacks came out next and we spent a few minutes chatting quietly whilst she eat. When she was calm, we rejoined the group who all had torches back on by now and had continued on without us.

I did think we were going to need to leave the tour and was pleasantly surprised when we could continue.

Coping with and helping upset and crying kids:

• Move further back into the mine and away from the tour group

• Determine what the problem is - afraid, bored, tired, hungry etc and see if you can solve it

• Your tour guide will escort anyone back to the surface if needed - it’s in the instructions at the beginning of the tour and it’s their job. It’s okay if that’s what needs to happen

• Have a plan. If your child needs to leave, who is going to take them out?

• If your child is old enough, tell them before the tour that they can leave if they need to. It’ll help to reduce the panicky feeling of being ‘trapped’ if they know they can leave.

We finished the rest of the tour and she happily chatted along with the tour guide. Our guide was very accommodating and not at all bothered. When we got to the end, our toddler was very pleased to see the daylight and escape above ground!

Wadna shop has beautiful artwork, crafts and carvings for sale and is worth a look during a day trip to Blinman. Carry or hold on to young kids - there’s lots of attractive things to touch!

Is it worth doing the Blinman Mine Tour with a toddler?

Yes and no. I missed out on listening to large sections of the tour to manage our toddler, spending most of my energy on keeping her safe and quiet and unable to take in the information. When hanging back with the torch on, I couldn’t hear any of what was being said.

The alternative for us is not doing the tour at all, so it made sense to give it a go and hope to glean something out of the experience.

It can help to agree on who’s going to be responsible for the primary care of your toddler on the tour. This time, I decided to take our toddler for the duration of the tour so my husband could enjoy most of the experience and listen to the tour guide. We don’t necessarily take turns, but instead focus on what we want to get out of the experience and how best to make that work.

For your toddler, the Blinman Mine Tour will be a novel experience and possibly a challenging one too. Not all family activities are child-centred activities. After all, kids can only learn how to act in situations and places they’re invited into.

We acknowledge over 65,000 years of continuous care and custodianship of the Adnyamathanha people over these lands and waters. Their sovereignty has never been ceded. We pay respect to Elders past and present, and the Adnyamathanha people as the traditional and rightful owners of this Country.