We decided to head up to the Mine of Lode Miner’s Memorial on top of the hill overlooking Broken Hill. There is also a cafe (Broken Earth Cafe) on the hill and we thought it would be a nice place for morning tea. We headed up the road towards it and came across a closed gate across the road and a sign saying that there was no access. We called in to the Information Centre and asked them what the story was. Apparently the cafe had closed in February and as there are no workers on the hill any more, they couldn’t have people wandering round by themselves due to public liability. They are in the process of transferring the land for the Memorial back to Crown Land so people can return. The only way you can go up and see it is on a tour, so we have booked that for tomorrow morning.
We had morning tea at another cafe which was lovely, and it had paintings all round the walls that were for sale. As art is so big in Broken Hill, there are paintings and galleries everywhere.
After morning tea we went to the Broken Hill Art Gallery to have a look. There was an exhibition on but the paintings exhibited were not our cup of tea, except for one. On the 1st floor were their permanent paintings and there were some nice ones there. An unusual one we saw was a waratah made out of cane toad skins. It was great. Unfortunately I couldn't take a picture.
I was reading an interesting piece of information in one of the brochures at morning tea. During World War I, about 4 months before Gallipoli, 2 Turks driving an ice cream truck, attacked a train in Broken Hill. It sounds quite funny so many years after the event, but it wouldn’t have been at the time. It almost sounds like a comedy – an ice cream truck attacking a train!
After lunch we drove out to the Living Desert and Sculpture Symposium. It is about 12 kms out of Broken Hill. The Sculpture Symposium was the idea of sculptor, Lawrence Beck, and was opened in May 1993. It comprises sandstone sculptures by Australian and international sculptors arranged around the top of a hill. The sandstone weighed 53 tonnes. A mammoth undertaking just to get them there. The sculptures are quite striking in their situation.
We then drove over to The Living Desert, a Fauna and Flora
Sanctuary. There is a designated walk
through the Sanctuary which takes you for just over 3 kms. There are labelled
native plants. One of them that is somewhere in the Sanctuary is Old Man
Saltbush. I would have liked to see what that was like but no luck. We saw a
Butter Bush and a Native Apricot, which actually had fruit on it.
Half way round the track was a Portaloo for those who needed one. Loved
the sign.
There were also information boards on topics relevant to the area. One
of them was on Feral Cats. It is estimated that each feral cat kills 1,000
birds a year within its range of a few square hectares. Some of them can reach
13 kg.
The average rainfall in the area of the Living Desert is 250mm and the
evaporation rate is 2 metres per year! Quite unbelievable. That certainly poses
a few problems for the future provision of water for the Broken Hill area.
As to the maintenance of The Living Desert, it looks like funding has
been cut and maintenance is suffering. Hopefully that doesn’t continue.
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