Broken Hill's Silver Mining Legacy and The Blue Mountains

 January 14 - We were up fairly early again before arrival in another mining town - Broken Hill. Just as Kalgoorlie is the central hub for gold mining, Broken Hill is the site of the largest and most productive silver mines in the south of Australia.

Broken Hill is almost as far in the middle of nowhere as Kalgoorlie, but in a different part of the Outback. It is actually in the state of New South Wales, but is so close to South Australia (SA), and does most of its business with SA, that it keeps their time zone as well. Remember that SA is 1 1/2 hours ahead of Perth and Western Australia, and observes Daylight Savings Time. New South Wales is another hour ahead but doesn't have DST. Keeping track of  what time it is supposed to be is a real tough job, not just here but all over Australia.

Broken Hill was not even established as a settlement until after mining began here. Silver had been found not far away at the town which was aptly though not imaginatively named Silverton.  While working in the area of Broken Hill (named by an explorer who identified what looked like a broken hill) Charles Rasp, a boundary rider, came across some ore that seemed to contain not only tin but some other minerals and sent it off to Adelaide to have it assayed. He waited for almost a year (no trains, planes, cars or email in the late 1800s) to learn that his sample also held silver. It was suggested that he establish a lease over this patch of land and continue to mine it. He gathered another half dozen miners, known as the Syndicate of Seven, bought the piece of land, and started a company - Broken Hill Proprietary Company, now known as BHP, one of the world's largest silver mining companies.  Our guide explained that after about a year a couple of the original investors pulled out as no vein of ore had been found; if they'd held on for another six months, until 1885, they'd have been very rich when the 'mother lode' was located. The town wasn't actually established around the mine until 1888, and now, over 130 years later, the mine continues to produce silver and other minerals, making Broken Hill one of the longest continual mining towns in the world.

Along with the mining industry came, as the mining production and safety technologies developed slowly, a large number of miner deaths. Up on a hill of waste rock overlooking the town is the Line of Lode Miners' Memorial to remember over 800 men who lost their lives in this dangerous work, just in Broken Hill. Fortunately the recent numbers have reflected the major improvements in safety, as the last name on the memorial dates from 2011, with only a very few after 2000.

Some of the elevator cars used over the years...there"s
no way I would get into one of them!

The memorial with names, dates and how each person
died.

Overlooking the town.

Broken Hill has also become a centre for artists. Maybe it is the rugged landscape and proximity to both nature and civilization that did it. One of Australia's best known painters, Pro Hart, did most of his work out here, and his family carries on his legacy, running art classes from his studio and curating a gallery of his work.

We visited a unique art 'gallery' up on another hill outside of town - the Living Desert and Sculpture Symposium. In 1993 a local artist, Lawrence Beck, invited artists from around the world to come to this hill for six weeks and create works out of large pieces of sandstone. They arrived - some never having sculpted before, never mind from huge chunks of sandstone - and camped out until they were done. When the original fund of money ran out, the townspeople pitched in and donated whatever the artists needed. The sculpture park is now central to the Living Desert, which is a 180 hectare reserve that houses local plants, birds and animals.

Not to be outdone, somebody built a couple of Inukshuks
with stray stones near the pathway.

Our final stop on the tour of Broken Hill was to the Sulphide Street Railway and Historical Museum, which is set up like a train station of the early 1900s. Trains and engines make up a lot of the displays, as Broken Hill was a major stop when railways were the only way to travel across the Outback. 

Inside the fastest and most luxurious train to run between Broken Hill and Parkes, where
it connected to service to Sydney between 1937 and 1989

This is what the train looked like. It last ran across the Sydney Harbour
Bridge in 1987 as part of a 50th Anniversary commemoration 

Another train engine on display

The train station also had an amusement park attached
to it for people waiting for the trains

and the park included some interesting games

The museum also displays railroad related items- 
this was an inspector's cycle. He would ride this
carriage along the rails and mark areas that needed repair
for the workers to deal with later on.

Amongst the other memorabilia of the time were
hospital and surgical items as well as these
dentists' chairs and drills....I would not have
wanted to have a toothache in those times!

The only issue we had with the train was that here at Broken Hill - and this was also only the second time the train stopped here in the morning - we sat out in 40°C heat for almost an hour waiting for the train to move up the platform for the Platinum cars to board. There were a couple of issues with the train, but also one or two that would have been avoided with a little better planning. We're pretty sure head office has made the necessary changes with the local station to make sure that never happens again!

After leaving Broken Hill we started to see more
vegetation as well as more curves in the track. This
meant we could see the front of the train more clearly

Another view of the engines

Lake Menindee, the most water we've seen since
leaving the Swan River in Perth!

On our final morning on the train, we had decided to stay on until Sydney rather than tour in the Blue Mountains, as we had been there before and done the scenic stuff. Unfortunately, rather than ride the train all the way, we were all required to take a bus from the station at Lithgow, a 2 1/2 hour ride. There was a work stoppage by some Sydney Rail staff that would have affected the ability of the train to get into the city, so passengers and luggage were all off-loaded. This is apparently not completely unheard of, so there was already a plan in place with all luggage on a couple of trucks, guests on a couple of buses. Those on tour would come later on a charter train that would be able to get into Sydney Central Station.

Not the interesting end to the journey that we were expecting, but the bus ride's rest stop was at Katoomba, where we had a chance see the Blue Mountains and the famous Three Sisters.

A quick snap of a group of kangaroos grabbing a drink
early in the morning

The Blue Mountains at Katoomba

The famous Three Sisters. The Blue Mountains
gets its name from the blue haze over the 
valley, apparently because of the gum trees
that are prevalent here

A panoramic shot of the valley from the Queen Elizabeth
Overlook at Katoomba

Our arrival in Sydney and retrieval of our luggage was a lot less chaotic than we expected it to be. We waited in the bus until the luggage truck was completely empty and then it only took a couple of minutes to find our bags. We had a car transfer to the Shangri-La Hotel, and it was already waiting for us.

Some final thoughts on the train - it really is the only way to understand the vastness of the country and the desolate landscape. If you aren't used to riding on long distance sleeper trains, it takes some getting used to, but everything was very comfortable and the service was great, outside of the Broken Hill hiccup. The decor wasn't as posh as Larry was expecting - he was picturing something more Orient Express-like - but it did the job. And we've just read that Journey Beyond is bringing in a new class of service that might be more to that standard. We're going to look into the Ghan and Great Southern for a future trip.

Now we have a couple of days in Sydney before boarding Regent Seven Seas Explorer.