Broken Hill

Dear Family and Friends

Photos are of the Racing Club where we are staying, our caravan, the grandstand at the park. Pro Hart's car that he painted alongside one of his three Rolls Royce cars. The final photos are of the rail museum that include the Silver City Comet, the dodge rail car that was the first car to be converted into a rail car. Also is the Mine's memorial to all those who have lost their lives, overlooking the city and also overlooking part of the mine.

Broken Hill is renown for its wide open spaces, red earth (and there is plenty of it) and its pristine blue skies and they're right but I would add that its cold winter winds blow straight through you. we have contended with incredible windy weather since we arrived.

Broken Hill is also known as the town with the silver lining because it holds the world's largest store of silver lead and zinc. BHP (Broken Hill Prprietary) began back in 1885.

The ore is evidently shaped like a 7-5 klm long and 250 metre wide boomerang (or coathanger, depending on which tourist info you read) plunging deep into the earth at both ends, and emerging above the ground in the centre. This central protusion stood out as a rocky ridge among rolling plains, and was known as 'the broken hill, by pastoralists. Whilst we didn't go down into the mine we did visit the miners memorial at the summit overlooking the city. All the lives lost over the years are memorialised there and sadly there are too many. The last recorded happened in 2007. The youngest name I saw was that of a twelve year old boy and there were also a couple of 14 year olds that died in the late 1800's. Clearly a harsh way of life taking both the young and the old.

One of the things that stands out here in Broken Hill is the number of Hotels located on almost every corner in the heart of town, similar to and perhaps even more so than Charters Towers.

In its former glory there were as many as 60 hotels in the city centre and at least 30 of them were in just one street.

There is also a large number of art gallerys and the most well known would have to be Pro Harts Gallery. Pro Hart died in March 2006 but when you go to the Gallery you not only see his artwork but you can see where he actually did most of his canvas painting. He painted on lots of unusual mediums and became known to include religous themes in his art work.

His 1971 Rolls Royce that he painted is parked outside his gallery as is his three other Rolls Royce cars. Something I was not aware of was that Pro Hart loved music and was largely self taught. His favorite instrument was a beautiful Rodgers electric pipe organ which also sits in his gallery. They said he could listen to Bach all day and he could play it fairly well too.

We also visited the Railway and Historical Museum, The Silver City Tramway Co. Ltd., The Hospital Museum and The Silver City Commet. These exhibets were all located together so there was a large variety of exhibits to look at.

The other interesting thing about Broken Hill is its cultural history. The landscape, the weather and the willingness of the locals to become extras in the film industry have put Broken Hill on the world screens a number of times. Within the city itself there are reminders of the many theaters that have added a more cultural aspect to this city. The hippodrome was an open air theatre in the early 1900's, the Tivoli theatre opened in 1915 and in 1924 the Crystal Theatre had the capacity to seat over 1000 people and was still in use in 1966 when it was torched by an arsonist. These are only a few of the many theatres making up this unique cultural facet of life in Broken Hill.

In one of the tourist magazines they tell an interesting story that happened during WW11. It starts off "at the height of ww11 there were very real fears that Australia would be invaded by Japan. The Commonwealth Bank held most of its gold in its strongroom and in 1941 it was decided that the safest place in Australia to house all the gold was Broken Hill. The Broken Hill gaol was chosen as the site. The first gold transfer took place in 1942 on a train guarded by military and bank guards, none of whom knew what their cargo was. More consignments were transferred under escort in 1943 and 1944. In April 1945, the threat to Australias coastal cities was over and all the gold was transferred back. Again a special train was used, guarded by over 130 bank and military personnel" Interesting, don't you agree.

All in all Broken Hill has been an interesting place to visit. Today, Mon has been our final day here as we move on to Menindee Lakes tomorrow. We expect to be out of range so I might not blog again for a few days.

Love to one and all.

Ken and Lyn