Broken Hill

It has been good to have a day to look at a few more places around Broken Hill.  We were here for a night last year and the year before, but that was to go on Lake Eyre and Corner Country tours, so did not have more than an hour to see some of the historic buildings. 

This morning we moved the caravan to a more comfortable site, because when we arrived there was nothing available but a temp site in a parking area.  Popular!  We visited the information centre, and then noted the old Railway Station Museum right next door (the Sulphide Street Station), so it was interesting working out the development of railway in Broken Hill.  The first rail came from Silverton and Adelaide. 

Down the road a block or so was an art gallery with the Big Picture which we went in to see, lots to sell as well.  This claims to be the largest painted canvas picture (maybe) in the world!  It is in a semicircle and is a landscape as though looking at the complete area around BH.  Worth a look.  Had to pay.

We also discovered another old railway station (Crystal Street) which was built a few years after the previously mentioned.  This connected Menindie (and later Sydney) to BH, but at that stage they had different gauge lines in about 1910 or so.  So eventually if you wanted to train from Sydney to Adelaide you had to walk several blocks to the other station!  This wasn't changed until the 1970s when the rail became one, and it's possible to travel from Sydney to Perth via Broken Hill.  A new station was built and rails were changed to standard gauge, and the Silverton line was disbanded.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service has a museum/display and tours of their base out at the airport, so that was a must for us to see this time.  This is a great service to the outback.  The B H base covers a very large area so it was interesting to hear how that works, and to see the control room and the hanger with work going on.  Pilots, Engineers, Doctors, Nurses and even Dentists are employed.  No charge is made to any patient.  Funding comes from State and Federal Governments and also a lot of fundraising and donations.  This is well worth seeing if you are ever in a town that has an RFDS base.

The afternoon was spent in driving the 25 ks to Silverton, the original mining town in the area, but now almost a ghost town, with ruins and a few restored houses and hotel, museums.  It is popular with artists and has several art galleries.

Old Churches of Silverton

  We enjoyed the scenery around and looked at some of the buildings here and there.  The bitumen goes further and we drove to the Mundi Mundi Lookout with an amazing view west across the plains, with a glimpse of the Flinders Ranges (as below).

  Then a little further for a view of an old Reservoir (the Umberumberka Reservoir! - try saying that) with more lookout views.  It was surprising to see quite a large lake.  This was also built around 1910.  Why it was built we have not found out.

Back in BH we drove along some of the Heritage trail and then back to caravan 'home'.  There is more to see in BH, but we'll leave that for next time.