Hi to all

Well we made it to Broken Hill after a drive of about 320 k's.  It was mostly made up of long straights with really very little traffic. 

The thing that amazed me about the trip was the amount of emus that we saw in the paddocks on the side of the road.  I have never seen them in the wild before so it was great.  As we got closer to Broken Hill I couldn't get over the number of wild goats on the side of the road.  There were literally hundreds of them.  Most of the trip there is no fencing on the roads so you cannot take your eyes of the road for even a second.  I was really glad when we saw the Broken Hill sign. 

From there we were going to stay for a couple of days in a little park at Silverton which was about 25 k's away.  The road out was full of dips and floodways and also just tons of goats and emus on the side of the road. 

Pulled into Penrose Park and it was more of a free camp in the bush than a caravan park.  Had been lots of rain over the last few days and lots of the park had surface water blocking off parts of it.    There are no water connections to your van and no drinking water in the park.  At least we had power.  Yeh sure.  The first hitch was that there was no power in the area between 8 and 4.30 for that day and the next 2 days.  Just great.  At least I can connect the tv up and watch the state of origin rugby game.  Yeh, you guessed it.  Very intermittent to no digital signal.  Just gets better by the minute.  And yes, of course its bloody freezing and no power for the heater.  Too tired to pack up and head into town so yes, you guessed it, toughen up princess. 

Stayed that night only and went into Broken Hill the next day.  After getting set up we headed into the town centre to visit the Information centre.  I was in heaven now.  A Gloria Jeans café in the Information centre.  Doesn't get any better than this. 

Armed with all of our info we headed off on foot to check out the town.  Probably the funniest moment of the trip came next.  We were walking down the main street and there were about 10 - 20 indigenous people walking towards us, and also on the other side of the road.  Deb grabbed my hand and said, " ITS A BIT OF SPOT THE AUSSIE AROUND HERE "  I just laughed and asked what do you think they are.  She then realised what she had said and tried to get out of it by saying she meant White Aussie.  Probably had to be there but it was very funny.

Lots of history in the town and from the main street you can see a miners memorial up on top of a hill overlooking the town.  It was starting to rain so we ducked into the Palace Hotel.  It is incredible this place.  It was the hotel in the movie Priscilla the Queen of the Desert.  Covering most of the walls and ceilings are murals.  Photos just don't do it justice as they all seem to run into each other. 

The following morning Deb went to an Art demonstration at the Caravan Park where she got to do her own painting on canvas.  Pretty good I think.  While she was there I was left to my own devices so I went and checked out a couple of art galleries and also went up to the miners memorial.  It is really incredible up there.  You can see all of Broken Hill from there.  The Miners memorial is set up much like the war memorial in Canberra.  The name of every miner that died is there as well as his cause of death.  The number that died of falling down the mine shaft is just incredible.  Obviously no Occ Health and Safety back then.

Drove back down and there is a huge slag heap probably over 50 metres high and a couple of hundred metres long.  When you look long and hard at the black slag, with all of the different shapes, you can almost make out human forms, and you can actually visualise their tortured faces in the rock face.  I know, I know, my imaginations is getting away from me again.

Well I can see their distorted faces in it. 

After Picasso (Deb) finished her class we went and checked out Pro Harts Gallery.  All I can say is bloody awesome.  He was such a talent.  Even the sculpture at the front of his house is awesome.  Got some great photos of some of his paintings.

Just a Deb Hart original

Next step on our history lesson was to the White Rocks historical site.  It was really incredible reading the story at this location.  It seems that on New Years Day 1915 there were 2 Turkish sympathisers of middle eastern origin living in the area that were dirty on the way that the Australians were treating the Turkish at Gallipoli.  They went out to Silverton with their ice cream cart and opened fire on the picnic train at Silverton.  4 people were killed and 7 injured in their attack and they escaped back towards Broken Hill.  They were caught up with at the White Rocks site and engaged in a gun battle with the local police, eventually one of them being killed and one critically injured and dying in hospital.  Incredible in the fact that it was the only recorded incident of an attack on the Australian People on Australian soil in the entire First World War.  An incredible history lesson or what.

Next day it was off to explore Silverton.  This is really a town straight out of the wild west.  There doesn't appear to be any actual houses in the town.  There is probably about 7 or 8 art galleries, a pub, a couple of museums and a church.  We went into the old Silverton Goal and museum.  It is full to the brim with history of Silverton and also of Broken Hill.

 

We then checked out a couple of Art Galleries and also the local pub.  The Silverton Hotel was used in the making of the film Mad Max 2 as well as another couple of movies since.  It really is your blast from the past hotel.  The day we were there it was incredibly busy with other tourists.

 

Our next stop was to the lookout for the Mundi Mundi Plains.  From this location you can allegedly see the curvature of the earth.  With my eyes I am lucky to see the curvature of Deb so I couldn't see it.  Took a couple of photos though as this is the spot where they made most of the scenes from Mad Max 2.  The countryside is just so barren and desert like.  You would think that nothing would live there, but of course, we came across emus, wild horses, camels and hundreds of goats out there.  Oh, and 4 donkeys. 

You could almost hear the Mad Max car in the distance.

Next on our cultural tour was a trip to the renowned Broken Hill Sculptures.  Being the huge art critic that I am we made out way out there to check them out.  There are probably about 10 sculptures there, of which I took some photos, but not all of them really impressed me. Some were just big pieces of rock.  Took all of our photos and then went for a walk along the flora trail.  Yes, almost got lost again.  Wasnt the most exciting flora trail around as the wildflowers are mostly dead about this time of year.  Checked out some aboriginal etchings but couldn't really make them out.  As we were leaving decided to go back up to the sculptures to try to get a photo as the sun was setting.  It was perfect timing as I got a great photo of one of them just as the sun was setting.  I think it was great anyway.

Great timing

       
 
After such a long day exploring and giving you all your history lessons it is time to relax and say good bye for now.

Barry and Deb.