We decided to take a few days out from Mildura and head up to Broken Hill to have a look while we are in the area. We rented a little miners cottage just on the outskirts of the town where we could have little Chip with us. Its pretty desolate country up this way and a bit warmer than Mildura too (yahh). For those of you wondering why its called Broken Hill here are a few details for you -
In 1844, the explorer Charles Sturt saw and named the Barrier Range and at the time referred to a "Broken Hill" in his diary. Silver Ore was later discovered on this broken hill in 1883 by a boundary rider named Charles Rasp. The "broken hill" that gives its name to Broken Hill actually comprised a number of hills that appeared to have a break in them. The broken hill no longer exists, having been mined away.
Of course Broken Hill is known for its mining (silver, lead, zinc and iron ore) however that is no longer the big industry that it once was. Once upon a time the town had a population of 30,000 but now its just under 20,000. BHP billiton the largest mining company in the world started here in Broken Hill (BHP = Broken Hill Proprietary company).
The cottage turned out to be lovely although we nearly burnt it down as we lit the fire not realising that the chimney had been blocked to stop blow flies getting in! We didn't know anything was wrong until about 30 minutes after we had the fire roaring away the smoke alarm went off and the room quickly filled with smoke from there. The woman who owns the cottage could hear the alarm going from her house and came over - Mal had to climb up a ladder on to the roof and unblock the chimney. Nice to have an open fire again LOL.
Broken Hill is also known for its RFDS history and base, and the School of the Air which is based here also. We had a look around the RFDS visitors centre which was really interesting and included a short film of their work and a look at the communication room and the aeroplane hanger. Here are some piccies from our outings:
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| the mine heading in to Broken Hill from our cottage |
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| ahh all the best things in life.... |
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| out the front of the cottage...lovely to sit with wine, in the sun, watching the world go by... |
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| our comfy bed |
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| the kitchen, lounge, dining |
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| boys returning from a walk |
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| out the back of the cottage |
We headed out to Silverton today which is about 25 km out of Broken Hill. Its a small settlement (the Hotel owner told us population of 37 on a good day!) that used to be a booming mining town in the 1880s. Now its well known for the various movies that have been made in the area including Mad Max, Mission Impossible and a Town Like Alice. There is a lot of Mad Max memorabilia around and also quite a few galleries of various descriptions.
We also headed up to the Line of Lode Miner’s Memorial and Visitors Centre, which is on the edge of the mullock heap that bisects the city. The mullock heap sits 30 metres high. The Miners Memorial is pretty disturbing as it is a roll call for the miners that have died over the years with a brief description of how they died, for example ‘caught in machinery’ ‘fell down a hole’ ‘crushed by a truck’ ‘premature detonation’. The latest deaths on there were recorded in 2007 for more mundane things like ‘heart attack at work’. There is a restaurant up the top too where we had coffee and cake. We were going to go for a nice dinner tonight but decided not to and after seeing what they charge for the privilege we made a good decision!
Here are some more piccies
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| my new work vehicle....well not yet anyways! |
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looking up the main street towards the Line of Lode - the Miners Memorial is on the left at the top and the Visitors Centre and restaurant on the right
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