Broken Hill reminds me of Kalgoorlie; a mining history in an isolated harsh environment. It's a lovely city with some beautiful Federation and Victorian buildings and many classic tin miners houses with bull nose verandas.
Sitting beside the main street is a line of mullock dumps from the silver lead zinc ore body that has generated over $109 billion; and perched right on top of one is a miners memorial (800 miners lost their lives) and spectacular restaurant called Broken Earth. We tried to go up but it has been closed for six months. Disappointed as I think it would been a spectacular view over the city.
Broken Hills is also a creative city with many artists residing here. I visited Pro Harts gallery.
I can see the country side and harsh environment reflected in their work.
We drove 25 kms northwest out to Silverton; a historical area where silver was discovered in the 1880s. It had a short life and at one stage tbe population was 3000, but within twenty years it was all over. The almost deserted town is now full of art galleries, museums and a great pub.
A lot of the buildings were moved to Broken Hill and all that remains are the sandstone building including several churches. It's other claim to fame is that a lot of the iconic Australia movies,like Mad Max, Razorback, Pricilla and lots do TV advertisements, were filmed here. Delicious soup in the pub on such a cold winter's day hit the spot.
On the way out we drove 14 miles into Day Dream tin mine where we saw the remains of an old mine, smelter and township.
The mining tour was interesting and both of us commented later that it was amazing that they could do tours in an this 1882 mine. But what a bleak spot on a cold day, a tough place to live.
We tried to go to the "living sculpture park" but "no dogs" so missed out. We finished the day with dinner at the Musician Club.
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