Dates : 10th Jun - 14th Jun
Saying goodbye to beautiful Menindee Lakes on Friday morning and heading to Broken Hill. Striking view as you enter, with the mining equipment towering over the town. We drove around and got our bearings at Junction Mine Lookout , then went to the information centre to realise that 3 days won't be enough for this area so we decided that an extra day will be added.
Broken Hill, NSW
Weather - Over the 4 days Cold & Cloudy 3 - 13
Total Distance Travelled - 2,500km (This is including all the stops we are adding in)
Staying 4 Nights, Broken Hill Outback Resort with a special night details later.
After we had settled with campsite setup. We drove around Broken Hill - visited the “Line of Lode Miner’s memorial” - which is dedicated to all the miners that have passed away whilst on the job, visited the local aboriginal art gallery.
In the evening visited the Living Desert State Park in the Barrier Ranges, where we saw 12 large sandstone sculptures from artists around the world. The most popular of them all is the Baja El sol Jaguar (Under the Jaguar Sun) and watched a cloudy sunset - which was still spectacular.
We decided to do an extra 275km drive to spend the night in a underground hotel and have a look around White Cliffs, a small town (population about 150), which was where opal mining was first established. Given the harsh climate (up to 46C in summer), most of the locals live underground, their homes dug into the rock to form rooms. Michelle had a tour of a local home which was very impressive but no photos were allowed.
We went on a fascinating mine tour with Graeme, who has been mining there since childhood (now in 50s). Famous (and seemingly well-off) for discovering “opalised pineapple”.
As expected in such an isolated place, there were a few eccentrics about. Visited the stubbie house. We also visited a place called Doug's Place - Doug has created little people using old railway nails to depict scenes - they were wonderful.
We went for a drive around the open opal cut mines and Michelle decided that the drone would give us a good perspective of the area.
We stayed in the Underground Hotel, with 30 rooms dug out of the side of the hill (+2 above ground for the claustrophobic). Bit of a tourist trap we would have thought for the cost an ensuite would have been included. But it's not often you can say you stayed underground in an old mine for the night.
In the morning we went upstairs to the roof of the hotel to see the sunrise before we headed back to Broken Hill.
Sunday morning we started the drive back to our camper (left in BH). Michelle spotted a group of 7 emus near the highway. Shortly after 2 others. Prior to that, it was all kangaroos (lots of roadkill). We’ve also seen a lot of birds of prey - kite, goshawk etc who compete with the crows for the roadside feasts.
Once back in Broken Hill, we visited the Pro Hart Gallery - Who can remember the ad on TV where Pro Hart did a similar painting like the dragon fly on the carpet and we were all shocked and amazed at the same time? I think this is when I fell in love with his art. Unfortunately Pro Hart passed away some 15 years ago, but we meet his wife and she told us a story about Pro Hart in Israel where they wanted him to be a diplomat for them but he said no - had to many places to visit.
That night to top everything off we went to The Palace Hotel (built 1889) in Broken Hill for dinner. This is where Priscilla Queen of the Desert was filmed - one of Michelle's favourite movies. What's amazing about this hotel - an Aboriginal artist called Gordon Waye painted over 55 murals on the walls. The Italian owner wanted paintings similar to the ones in Italy - it's captured Oz in an eccentric way.
On our last day in Broken Hill we drove out to Silverton. First place we visited was Daydream Mine. We had a walk around the the top of the mine shafts, but we didn't go underground as it was advised if you're claustrophobic not to go down as it's steep and narrow- it was mined by Cornish miners, most around 5 foot tall. Sad story about this mine, 8 to 10 year old's were used to collect the silver and were called "the pickers". When they got older and eyesight deteriorated they became the new miners. Very poor conditions in this mine and they don't have a list of the many who died at this mine.
Michelle decided to put up her drone - to capture the vastness of the area we were in.
Driving into Silverton we spotted wild donkeys on the side of the road.
Silverton - originally Umberumberka - truly started in 1883 as a silver city with people from all over the world coming to dig for silver. Now it's famous for movie sets (Mad Max and they are currently filming a new Mad Max movie out here if it stops raining - they wanted red desert dirt, but because of the rain all the greenery has flourished.
We also meet the famous painter John Dynon - I love the Emu Paintings - when we get back we want to buy one for the house. We went to the GaolHouse Museum which had fantastic memorabilia of all eras. Went to the famous bakery for lunch and had a look around the Silverton Hotel (too early for a drink). Visited many more galleries.
We also went to the Mundi Mundi lookout where we saw a big roof top tent and the filming of the Mad Max 3 - you couldn't see anything.
As we got back to Broken Hill we did our laundry in the local laundromat and met a few locals and had a great chat - then we came out to see the moon on full display so we went to the highest lookout we were near to take photo which happen to be looking towards "The line of Lode".
We have been wanting to come out here for a while, not disappointed if not blown way by the New South Wales outback. So much to see and do out here, again another area we will have to come back for a second visit and spend a lot more time.
Now we are heading to South Australia - see you there.
Cheers,
Mike & Michelle
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