September 22nd 2022
Broken Hill
Arriving at our little local hotel in Cobar, we find a group of car enthusiasts have arrived with their hotted up vehicles. Their here for a car meet, some driving their vehicles some arriving with the vehicles in trailers, amongst them an Aussie Ford Falcon Fast Back, an American Chevrolet sedan, complete with tail fins and a British Rolls Royce (my favourite). The car is painted in a stunning white, the vehicle is immaculate, with original cream leather upholstery and oak timber veneer dash board. The Rolls Royce engine removed and a locally made V8 installed, a hole cut in the bonnet for the twin carburettors to poke through. Shiny alloy wheels, standard size at front but super wide at the back. It is almost sinful to give a Rolls Royce this treatment, but I have to admit the car looks superb.
The motel is one of the best we have stayed at for room amenities, cleanliness and layout although compact we have everything we need. Also has a homely touch, that is comforting after a long time away. The motel has a restaurant but only serves breakfast, directing us to the Bowling and Golf Club just across the road. We never know what to expect at these country town hotel/motel restaurants but thats part of the fun. The Club is typical of NSW country towns, gambling is part of the fabric of Aussie society out here, the bonus is that the gamblers subsidise the food and drinks. The gambling consists mainly of poker machines and Keno, no cards or fancy games like roulette, you can however bet on most sports, wherever they maybe played in Australia. The restaurant is set in a large room away from the bar and gambling areas, its no surprise to us that once again the food is Asian. This time Chinese. The food is good, we have a duck and a beef dish to share, finding the food quite authentic rather that too westernised.
The next morning we find that the rain has continued most of the night, with the temperature dropping considerably, the shorts and T shirts are now well and truly relegated to the suitcase. Winter attire is back on, with the rain jackets kept in close proximity along with the umbrellas. We had planned to visit Cobar’s Sound Chapel, not a religious venue but a permanent artwork incorporating sound, architecture, art and poetry. It functions as a digital 4 channel string quartet that plays continually on a loop 24-7. The venue is a 5 metre walk in cube set within a 10 metre tall water tank, with an in-built loudspeaker in each wall. Sound spills out of the water tank that has a rusty rustic appearance on the outside, giving the impression that the music is coming from an old water tank set in the outback. Intriguing, but the weather is not conducive to walking around a muddy paddock. Besides I think that I may be experiencing the onset of a cold, with sore throat symptoms coming on with the advent of the cold weather, not good, not happy! The organisers don’t make it easy to access either, with a viewing fee and a cash refundable deposit of $300.00 just to view it, the return of the money subject to inspection after your visit, to ensure you haven’t wrecked the place. Anyway we decide that time is against us, and make our plans to travel directly to Broken Hill where we have a two night stay.
As with yesterday we are retracing our steps, the area has experienced substantial rainfall since early August when we departed on this sojourn. As a result the land is even greener, with spring now adding carpets of cream coloured flowers along the roadside and off into the distance. Purple flowers appear now and again, as well as masses of pinkish oval shaped flowers that sit like beads on green grass like stems. Again we play spot the animal or bird, plenty of feral goats graze along the verges. Not so many Emu’s today. One exciting moment sees us spotting a pair of magnificent wedge tail eagles, feeding on the ground from a recent catch. We speculate if this could be a baby goat as there are many in the vicinity.
First stop is Wilcannia, a mainly indigenous town situated on the Darling River, once the second largest river port in the country. In a time when Australia lived off the sheep’s back when 1000’s of bales of wool made their way up and down the river to be exported to Britain and the world. Local Australian woollen mills, existed then, now long gone with much of Australia’s manufacturing industries. Sadly today the towns historic buildings are in much disrepair, leaving an impression that is neither welcoming or attractive to the passing visitor, to want to linger long.
Next stop is Broken Hill, we continue along the the Barrier Highway a long straight stretch of road where the weather system ahead is on full display. Dramatic against the open plains below. We travel through a number of rain cells, but nothing too heavy, the colours of the landscape continue to amaze. Rusty red coloured low bushes, contrast against smaller blue grey salt bush, lime green new growth grasses as well as yellow flowers from low growing creepers. All adding to a textured blanket of colour in vivid 3D covering the land on both sides of the road.
As we approach Broken Hill we can see the radar telescopes that form part of the Outback Astronomy facility. Outback Australia is famous for clear star filled skies, many towns are now offering astronomical experiences free of light pollution that impacts viewing in the big cities. Broken Hill among them.
As we are early, and our clocks now go back half an hour to South Australian time, we decide to go straight into town. I want see if I can find some throat lozenges for a deteriorating sore throat. For the last week Queen Elizabeth II’s passing has formed a back drop to our breakout holiday. One of those moments like the death of J.F.K or the Moon landing, that you will forever remember exactly the moment in your life when you heard this world changing news. As a result our Prime Minister, bless his heart, gave us all a day off. Since everyday is a day off for us, the gesture misses the mark in our case, but we do appreciate the intent. Today it happens to be that day, just about every commercial operation is shut down. Apple maps, in walking mode wasn’t much help either, sending us first one way then another looking for none existent supermarkets. We finally need to drive to find one, that just happens to be in a fuel station, but not before having a good walking tour of the inner Broken Hill township.
Walking in Broken Hill is like a stepping into the past, grand hotels such as The Palace with grand entrances fill the street corners, two story with wrap around verandahs, large decks like promenades around the upper floor.
One is decidedly Art Deco with an elaborate ironwork balcony that runs the full length of the building on both streets of the corner location. All this with a huge Lead, Zinc & Silver mine right at their back door, in the centre of town. The original slag heap is still right there. Many of the shops and buildings are still in original condition, its easy to imagine you are walking down the street in your hat, button down white shirt front with turned down collar and thin black tie. Maybe a cane and moustache, while the lady besides you is wearing a full length dress, hat, gloves and carrying a parasol. Horse drawn carts rumble down the street as you hurry along to your next appointment. While the noise, steam and industrial odours fill the air from the very nearby mine. As a visitor you would be staying at one of these grand hotels, after arriving from Sydney on an epic steam train journey. At its peak 31000 people lived and worked here now the town is home to only 17500 people.
Miners meanwhile slave away deep in the pit bringing the precious ore to the surface for refining.
Many of the miners came from migrant families, Italy, Yugoslavia, Norway, Greece to name a few. After the second world war Europe had little to offer the already struggling peasant families of these nations. Australia offered opportunity and a better life.
The miners live outside the town centre in tiny corrugated iron dwellings, but still close enough to walk or bike to work. They lived on streets with names like, Bromide, Calcite, Chloride, Cobalt, Carbon, Garnet, Graphite, Iodide and Sulphide to name a few but doesn’t take much guessing to realise this is a mining town. Many of the homes they called “Tinnies” still exist today. Mostly made of corrugated iron, some in original condition. or many now, with a new generation are in newly renovated. They all form part of the history and fabric of Broken Hill today.
Above some examples of Broken Hills renovated corrugated iron Miners cottages
The deepest point of the Broken Hill ore body descends over 1.5 km underground. Broken Hill had a massive sulphide lode of over 200 million tonnes with 50 million tonnes of lead and zinc and 20 000 tonnes of silver. Back in 1875 one Charles Rasp worked on the Mt Gipps sheep station that covered an area of 100,000 acres. Gold prospectors had moved in, but without success. Charles road the fence boundaries and noticed a dark rocky outcrop that to him looked like tin. He along with six others, staked a claim forming the Broken Hill Mining company. What they thought to be tin, turned out to be lead, zinc & silver. Not the Holy Grail of gold but a deposit so big that it is still being mined today. The hotel, come motel, camping and caravan site we are staying at is a heritage listed building. Originally the Mt Gipps Hotel established around 1890 served the community for over 100 years before being left derelict since 1987. In 2018 an enterprising family restored the building, setting up an outback stop for weary travellers like us.
Above a Broken Hill building mural that celebrates the Ghan Railway, that crosses Australia from Adelaide to Darwin, the Afghan camel drivers that helped with the exploration and opening up of the vast Australian Outback.
In the centre of town is the original headframe that sat above the first mine shaft, from this shaft came 6 million tons of ore from 1884 to 1940, as refining became more efficient they re-visited the mine drawing many more tons of ore from 1944 until 1959. The frame is made from Oregon Pine, charred to weather proof it, with steel rods used for cross bracing.
A corrugated iron building once housed the winding mechanism shown in the picture below.
Above, the ever present slag heap that now houses the Line of Lode Cafe/Restaurant (now closed due to Covid restrictions and not yet opened due to staffing shortages) (Right) and the Miners Memorial (Left) 800 miners lost their lives working this mine over the many years of its operation.
Next we are off to the Pro Hart Gallery, since the mid 1980’s we always had paintings of Pro Hart on our walls. Pro Hart grew up in Broken Hill and worked in the mines, at that time a requisite of living in the town meant at least working one shift at the mine per week. Many miners developed other creative outlets to keep them sane after many hours of work in dark claustrophobic conditions for hours, days and weeks on end. Pro Hart learnt to paint, becoming famous for his colourful stick like renditions of people enjoying regular Australian outback leisure activities like an outdoor BBQ, or attending a country horse race meeting and outdoor picnic’s. Also Australian outback life in general. He painted in a number of other styles as well, such as shooting paint balls at canvas or tipping tins of paint on pieces of carpet to form a textured canvas. He passed away in March 2006.
Pro Hart owned 4 Rolls Royces, all still neatly parked in their carports at the Gallery and studio where he worked, symbols of his commercial success over the years. All though becoming wealthy he never left Broken Hill. This Rolls, above, he painted in his own inevitable style.
Apart from painting (Broken Hill also is home to other famous Australian Outback painters including Jack Absalom) Broken Hill also established a sculpture park, in April 1993 a month long symposium added sculpture to the local culture. 53 tonnes (metric tons) of sandstone arrived from nearby Wilcannia to the Living Desert State Park just 7 kilometres outside of Broken Hill. Invites to sculptors around the world brought in twelve artists, from Mexico (2) Georgia (3), Syria (2), Australia (3) and Bathurst Island (Timor Sea) (2). For a month the sculptors worked at the site to create their art, with a great deal of help from locals.
Tomorrow we travel home, our journey comes to an end like all good things. the final 549 Kilometres of a 7200 kilometre journey. Hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures as much as we have enjoyed sharing them. We have seen far more of Australia than we have previously, and solved a lot more mystery’s than we new there were. I’ll send a short note to let all that we arrived home safely. Until the next adventure stay safe and happy travels.
