Broken Hill - 18 July 2014

Our car was due for its 40,000 km service so we had booked it in here at Broken Hill for today. We dropped it off early and had breakfast at Charlotte's where we had morning tea the other day. It was very nice. While we were having breakfast, we heard the shocking news about the Malaysian Airlines plane shot down in the Ukraine. It makes you want to cry for all those poor people and their families.

After that we headed down to the Information Centre to meet our guide, Jean, who was doing the walking tour of Broken Hill. The walking tours started in their Centenary year (1888) but the guides are getting older now and unless they can recruit some more people, they will have to either scale them back or cut them out. That would be a real shame.

While we were on our tour, I checked the temperature as it was a bitterly cold wind blowing. At 10.30 this morning it was 8.6 degrees but with the wind chill factor it was 4.9 degrees. Very cold.

Jean took us to some of the places we had already been to, but also some new ones. She took us inside the Trades Hall. Unions played a huge part in Broken Hill's history and development. There were 3 big strikes in the mines in Broken Hill - 1892, 1909 and 1919. Each strike lasted for a few months. In the Trades Hall, there were historical photos of these strikes and also other events. There were also banners carried by the Unions in the big parades.

Also in the building is a function room which was used for weddings, dances, etc. The whole building has been renovated.

After the Trades Hall, we went to Sturt Park. It is a lovely park and is where Carols by Candlelight are held each year. There is a huge Moreton Bag fig tree, more than 100 years old that has all fairy lights through it which are lit at Christmas. It must look beautiful.

Also under the tree is a memorial to the Afghan cameleers, who played a big part in Broken Hill's early days. They did the deliveries of goods out to the outlying Stations.

There is also a memorial in the park to the band members of the Titanic as well as a rose garden planted in memory of those killed in Port Arthur. The townspeople really want to be involved in what is happening in Australia and elsewhere. There are lots of memorials round town.

Charles Rasp is the person who found the initial minerals in the ground here in Broken Hill. He was a boundary rider on Mt Gipps Station, a nearby property which encompassed Broken Hill. He thought it was tin and sent it away to be tested. When the news came back that it was a really rich deposit of silver, lead and zinc, the Syndicate of Seven was formed from workers on the property to become BHP. Most of them went on to become very wealthy but a couple of them sold their shares very cheaply. BHP eventually left Broken Hill in the 1930's.

After the tour finished, we went to have a look through the Geocentre, which is a minerals and mining museum. The main reason I wanted to go and look is they have a tree made of 7.5kg of silver made in 1880. It was lovely. There was also a silver nugget weighing 42kg.

I took the photo of the Silver Tree and then noticed a sign which said no photos.

We then walked down to the Palace Hotel, a really old hotel used in the film Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. We were able to have a look downstairs but not allowed upstairs. There are so many murals throughout, some of them better than others.

Our car was ready by this time, so we picked it up and went to have a look at the Bush 'n Beyond Gallery displaying art by Wendy Martin and Ian Lewis. There were some nice paintings there, and Wendy also does jewellery.

We came back to the caravan and I left Bruce there. The wind is playing havoc with his sinuses and he is not 100%. I walked down the road to the cemetery. I love walking through cemeteries. There is a walking trail through Broken Hill's cemetery with a brochure pointing out graves of interest. Ion Idriess' mother, Julia, is buried here. She died during a typhoid epidemic. Pro Hart is also buried here. What was sad was the number of children who have died at such a young age. The cemetery is the second largest in Australia, with 60,000 people buried here. The largest is at Brookvale, although that one is 2 cemeteries joined together.