At Broken Hill

Thursday 31^st October

Armed with colour glossy brochures, we set off on the 3km walk to the Tourist Information Centre to double check on things to see and do and to buy me another charm. This one is a poppet head.

We visited a couple of galleries and had a lovely lunch in a beaut little café.

 We saw The Palace hotel that had a starring role in ‘Priscilla Queen of the Desert’.

 

Of course, it is a town dominated by the mines so there are several monuments.

 

Friday 1^st November

Today, we decided to drive out 25 km to Silverton. As we went in search of the Service Station to fill up before our adventure we managed to take a wrong turn and ended up at Keenan Lookout with its view across Broken Hill and ‘The Line of Lode’ and ‘The Hill of Mullock’.

 

Broken Hill is the second largest producer of silver-lead-zinc in the world (after Mount Isa).

The drive to Silverton provided some great scenery especially the Mundi Mundi Plains.

 

The town itself has only about 60 residents these days and is enjoying a new lease of life because of tourists interested in its mining history,  art galleries and its popularity as a location for TV, commercials and films like ‘A Town Called Alice’ and ‘Mad Max 2’.

 

We visited the Pub and met the last remaining donkey.

 

 

 

The locals seem to have a penchant for painting cars among other things.

 

We visited the galleries and walked around the town.

We went past the Mad Max 2 Museum and went to the café for a luncheon of sausages and gravy and beef patty and salad, both served on a damper – Yummo!

 

 

 

It was very hot and sunny with a temperature approaching the 30s. Obviously, summer is upon us finally, and this was reflected in the sign outside the café.

 

 

From here, it was back to Broken Hill and on to Bells milk Bar.

It is straight out of the 1950s.

 

 

The décor is early laminex right down to the baby’s high chair in the corner.

 

Ronnie and I had a ginger beer and lime spider respectively before continuing on our sight-seeing adventure.

 

From here, we drove across town to ‘Line of Lode’ and ‘Hill of Mullock’ with its Miners Memorial on top.

Driving up to the top we saw parts of the still working mine.

 

 

At the top we found this fab Park Bench

It was part of a 2002 ‘Landscapes and Backgrounds’ Contemporary Public Art in Broken Hill and gave a great view of the city.

 

hen it was across to the Miners Memorial.

 

 

Inside the memorial, there are black glass walls with the names of miners who have died, their ages, the mines they worked in and the manner in which they died since mining began here. There are far too many names on the wall. The lists are edged with silk roses. Two miner’s bodies remain entombed on the site, unable to be recovered.

 

We left here and drove 11 km out of town to ‘The Living Desert’ where the now iconic Broken hill sculptures sit. They were made in 1993 by a group of 12 local and international artists using 53 tonnes of sandstone.

 

 

As we wended our weary way towards home, we saw still more emus. One even strolled across in front of Indie.

We called at the shopping centre. I was on a quest to have my charm attached to my bracelet. I had gone to Prouds on the Wednesday afternoon when we bought it and was told that Kel could do it but not today. So we called in on Thursday to be told she was at lunch (at 2.00pm) and was knocking off at 3.30 and probably would not have time to do it. I left my number, she phoned me and said she would be able to do it definitely on Friday. So it was with high hopes I entered the premises only to be told that Kel was off sick but would probably be in on Saturday. I marched out, clutching my charm and went to Zammels around the corner and they did it straight away!!! Happy penny!!!

Saturday 2^nd November

After our big day yesterday, it was unanimously decided that today would be declared a day of rest. That worked well until I decided that it would be a good day to go to the Pro Hart Gallery.

Ron consulted the map, determined that it was only 2.9 km away and the walk would do me good. He sent me off with the street map and a bottle of water and wished me well. Again the temperature was creeping into the 30s. I was even wearing one of my colourful frocks (for the first time in ages).

But I made it.

I quite enjoyed it. The gallery had quite a few of his paintings on display and the penchant for painting cars extended here with one of his many Rolls Royces having been painted by him as well.

I finally dragged myself out of the air conditioning and headed home, stopping on the way at Julie Hart’s (his daughter) Gallery. Her paintings are very similar in style and subject matter to those of her father.

I really did appreciate being back in the cool of Indie’s air conditioning.

Sunday 3^rd November

We did actually manage a fairly restful day. It is still hot and sunny. It did look quite overcast this morning and I fully expected it to rain. We had seen a vapour trail when we were at Silverton and according to Penny’s first law of Physics: It will rain within one or two days of seeing a vapour trail!!! I think on this occasion however, that overcast is as close as we will get.

This afternoon we cut each other’s hair. It is too hard to find hairdressers on short notice.

So now, it’s off to bed to sleep the sleep of the righteous till we set off again tomorrow.