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.

Seppeltsfield Winery

 

(Editor's Note - the internet has been really spotty on the ship here in Australia but should start to improve as we head north. Hopefully I can catch up quickly! We were in Seppeltsfield on January 13.)

Journey Beyond just recently changed the itinerary for the Indian Pacific to have the stops during the morning rather than later in the evening. Given the fact that temperatures can reach into the 40s Celsius by noon and the heat can last well into the evening, it makes lots of sense.

So we are actually on only the second journey with the new itinerary and they are still trying to work out the kinks. One of the new off train excursions is a tasting and dinner at Seppeltsfield Winery, one of the mainstays of the Barossa Valley. We were dropped off to our buses in the middle of nowhere and raced the train along a dirt road until we had to turn away from the tracks.

Once we reached the winery we had Seppeltsfield’s Bubbly and smoked popcorn – yes, smoked, at it was delicious! The executive chef for the winery, Owen Andrews, loves to come up with new and different ways to present and use local produce.

Plates of Owen's smoked popcorn

We then had a short tour of some of the heritage buildings. Seppeltsfield was established in the 1851 by the Seppelt family that immigrated from Selesia. Joseph and Joanna came with their 5 children and 19 other families from the same town. The demand for wine and spirits, especially from England, drove the success of the family business from the beginning, and along with the excellent wines they started producing fortified spirits, especially Tawny Port.

Seppeltsfield houses what is known as the Centennial Collection, an unbroken line of Tawny vintages that dates back to 1878. Benno Seppelt, the oldest son of Joseph and the force behind much of the original expansion, decided to put aside a barrel from every year’s vintage not to be consumed before it had aged for at least 100 years.

The storage house - wine on the lower floors,
port on the upper floors

Our first stop was a tasting with wines paired with some very interesting bites created by Owen. The white, rose and red we tried were among the nicest and smoothest we’ve tasted anywhere.

After our tasting, we were taken to the special port storage room where the Centennial Collection is housed, and were treated to a small taste of the 1923 vintage – that’s 102 years old! All we could say was ‘Wow’ – that they would even give us any, and then at the taste. It was very thick and syrupy with a heavily concentrated dark red colour and flavour. As the ‘cellar’ is actually on the third floor of a stone building, it allows for the natural evaporation that is required to produce a good port. And over the extreme time scale, the port loses up to 80% of its original volume.

The other special thing about this collection is that there isn’t another one like it in the whole world. And they are very careful with the oldest ones that they don’t lose any of the precious liquid and break the chain.

The small cask is for the oldest vintage. It may be 
in glass inside the barrel to prevent it from further evaporation

For recent vintages, they even have one for Princes William, Harry and George and Princess Charlotte. Maybe they haven’t created the one for Louis yet.

Our next stop was in a huge event space with enough tables for 200 of us, an open area used as a dance floor, and a stage where a trio - fiddle, guitar and keyboards - played and sang before, during and after dinner. The evening was a lot of fun, and the food was amazing too. Chef Owen outdid himself at the 'barbie' to cook the steak and chicken.

The head cooper for the winery demonstrated how
they burn the inside of the barrels to prepare
them for storing certain wines

The cheese plate dessert

Members of the train staff getting into the
dancing to start everyone off

We were driven into the Adelaide train station where all of the south Australian special trains depart - the Indian Pacific, the Ghan and the Great Southern. The train was at the platform but we still had to wait to board and depart. This time the Platinum cars were at the back end of the train as we had new engines (two now that we would have to climb into the Blue Mountains) and they were coupled at the other end.

Once back on board everyone headed for their compartments as we would be arriving in Broken Hill fairly early in the morning. 

The Nullarbor

 

We’ve had a 2 ½ hour time change to bring us to the South Australia Daylight Savings time zone, and are now riding through the Nullarbor. Before brunch we were still in the woodland, but as we ate we could seen the size and number of trees reducing quickly. Now the tallest vegetation is no more than a 6 foot high bush.

We stopped briefly at Rawlinna where this was the only
building I could see. Not sure who lives there or
what it is used for.

We have also been served an afternoon tea buffet with a couple of small cakes and meat pies. Again, everything has been quite delicious!

There's even onboard entertainment! Guitarist/singer
Max traveled up and down the train, making
1/2 hour stops in each lounge carriage

Relaxing with a drink and some company
during the long straight run

All afternoon and evening we saw nothing but these tiny scrubby blue-grey bushes with the odd punch of bright green for miles and miles and more miles, but one could sit there absolutely mesmerized by the unchanging landscape under bright blue skies. The colour palette was actually very calming.

One of our mail stops, with the local resident here
to greet us.

We were surprised to see an aircraft hangar and a
plane out here, but this huge territory is serviced
by the Flying Doctor Service, based in
Kalgoorlie. This may be a fuel and service depot.

And every so often we would see large trucks,
tractors or other equipment just sitting near the
tracks with nobody around. That dirt strip
in front is what passes for a road out here.

We were on the lookout for emus and kangaroos, but saw nothing, barely even a bird. The train made a number of brief stops along the way, whenever there was any sign of human habitation. The Indian Pacific also delivers mail and packages on its weekly run through the desolate area.

We viewed a beautiful sunset around 9:00, and not long afterward pulled into the tiny community of Cook. Here they had set up a bonfire and numerous tables for everyone to enjoy an hour or so to stretch our legs and do a little stargazing in the clear night sky. They were also offering nightcaps of Port or Baileys for us to enjoy.

After doing a little experimenting with the camera settings on my phone, I did manage to get some really nice photos of the stars, even though the moon was full and washed out all of the Milky Way. It is really odd to see familiar constellations in strange orientations. Down here Orion is upside down.

Passengers gathered at the tables around the bonfire.
This stop has replaced the cookout
beside the train that they used to do in Rawlinna. 

My favourite photo of the train with the full moon above

After another high-speed run – the train can apparently do a maximum of about 110 km/hr – we woke to find more of the same Nullarbor vegetation. I haven’t taken photos of all of the food served on board, but it has been consistently very good and plentiful. Yes, we did even try a little cured kangaroo on a Ploughman’s Lunch plate. Very lean and actually quite tasty.

It was a day to just relax and socialize, as there was nothing in particular going on until we reached the disembarkation point for our evening tour at Seppeltsfield Winery in the Barossa Valley.

This salt sea is Lake Hart. It was previously the site of
a salt mine, and only gets a small amount of rain
each year.

We passed the town of Port Augusta which is in a bay on the Great Australian Bight. First water we've seen for quite some time! Next stop - the Barossa Valley.