Monday 26 August 2013

Broken Hill, New South Wales or South Australia?

Broken Hill is in the far west of New South Wales, is in the Central Timezone and is closer to Adelaide than it is to Sydney.  Much of the architecture is typically South Australian.

We were here just under 2 years ago for a few days and merely scratched the surface of this fascinating city.  There's heaps to see and much to do in this place which was built on some of the world's richest mineral deposits.  




About 25 km from Broken Hill is the ghost town of Silverton.  On our way we stopped off to tour the Daydream Mine.  This mine operated 100 years ago, predominantly with cornish miners.  They certainly has a hard life with many dying around age 40.  The limiting factor to mining in the area was the lack of water.  The mines were rich, but water had to be transported in for both the workers and mining operations.  We donned hard hats and mining lights for the underground tour.  In its day, Daydream was quite a thriving community.  Once back above ground we had coffee and fresh scones at the cafe.

After our morning tea we drove to the Mundi Mundi Plains lookout.  Last time we were here we had a flat tyre as we pulled into the parking area, and the plains were very brown.  This time there was plenty of green around - and no flat tyre.  The plains have been used as the location for many movies, notably the Mad Max movies and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.  Then it was on to the Umberumberka Reservoir, which is the backup water supply for Broken Hill.  This is a popular bbq spot.


Back to Silverton, we checked out a couple of galleries with their distinctive desert paintings.  The Mad Max vehicles have moved from the area next to the historic pub and we found some of them further up the hill.  At its most active, Silverton had a population of over 3,000.




At sunset we joined the many tourists at the Desert Sculptures in the Living Desert National Park to take photos.  The sunset was a bit of a fizzier though because there were no clouds.  The sculptures are the result of a symposium in 1993 when international and Australian sculptors lived at the site and created the sculptures.  They looked great as the sun shone golden on the sandstone.








Our neighbour in the caravan park was back the next night for a better sunset and also managed to get some photos of Sturt Desert Peas, South Australia's state flower.

Our last day in Broken Hill we did our civic duty and voted in the upcoming federal election.  This is out last opportunity to vote as we are "going bush" again tomorrow.  Then it was off to the Information Centre to pick up a booklet on the Heritage Trail - a 40km drive around the city.   We had good intentions, but only managed to see about 29 of the 220+ attractions.

We lunched at the Miners Monument cafe, on top of the Line of Lode, looking at the view over the city.  The Monument is a memorial to the hundreds of miners who have died as a result of their mining activities; some through accidents and others through diseases.  




We've been able to sample some good food while here.  We celebrated our wedding anniversary with dinner at The Astra restaurant, and were back there the next night for dinner with Robert's cousin.  And we had milkshakes Bells Milk Bar where we stepped back into the 1950s.









We spent most of the afternoon at the Historic Synagogue, which houses the Historical Society, and learned about the jewish history of the area.  We also saw the Titanic Exhibition with it memorabilia of the fateful voyage.

Broken Hill is a city of galleries and we had hoped to visit the Pro Hart Gallery this time.  Unfortunately we've just run out of time.  At least we have an excuse to come back again.  Not all artworks are in galleries though.  The striking train murals at the station were commissioned to mark the 100th anniversary of Rotary in 2004.

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