Mad Max country and goodbye to Broken Hill

Twenty six kilometres north west of Broken Hill is the old silver mining town of Silverton. The environment is harsh, flat and unyielding, with enormous skies and uncrowded roads ..... a great dystopian film set in the making!

This is the tiny little township of Silverton today ........ wind farms working hard in the distance on this cold and windy day in the outback.

Silverton found a new focus in the early 80s, as the filming of the extraordinary Mad Max 2 film took over the tiny town and its surrounding roads and desert landforms. A number of Mad Max tragics have created this quirky little museum (for other tragics) in Silverton with artifacts and props from the film and all the stories behind the making of the film.

The Broken Hill and Silverton communities got right behind the film and provided great energy enthusiasm and expertise in getting the surreal Mad Max machinery and stunt scenes to be as ground breaking as they were. The dusty decaying evidence of all that is here in the museum.

Someone like me might think this is a yard full of junk but a Mad Max tragic would be transported with joy to see this stuff!

It's true that Silverton overall looks a bit desperate these days but this former Catholic Church (built in 1886) was looking quite gracious today with its new owners in residence.

We drove out to Mundi Mundi Lookout where key scenes in Mad Max 2 were shot (before the days of wind farms)............

.......... and met the town's friendly donkeys on the drive back.

Other parts of Silverton look like a film set at the ready .... including this apparently unused building kept in perfect repair.

We wandered through the Silverton cemetery with its many sad stories of tough times in the mining days (mine accidents, typhoid, death in childbirth etc etc etc).

And we crossed the "creek" getting back into town from the cemetery. It looked like water would have flowed through here quite recently. It was such a different landscape to the rest of town with its beautiful old river red gums, clay soils and leaf litter in evidence.

We were not enjoying the freezing winds by now so thought the timing was right to head back to Broken Hill for our token visit to the historic Bell's  Milk Bar and Museum on the south side of town. Apparently it is the oldest continuously operating milk bar in Australia (circa 1956) still with most of its original decor.

As the weather worsened and rain started falling we did our last tourist duty in Broken Hill by visiting the Miners Memorial high up on the enormous Line of Lode that dominates the city.

There are over 800+ names of miners who lost their lives working on the mines over the last 130 years or so... such dangerous work.

The Memorial Lookout gave us a great view over the city, although we couldn't bear the wind and rain for long. The mullock heap over the line of lode is not pretty... but this is what the city is about - or maybe its part of what the city is about!

We'll leave this unique place tomorrow - very happy to have seen it and experienced its beauty, its harshness and its contribution to making our country what it is!

Broken Hill

We definitely got more of a handle on this amazing place today. We made a plan, did all our pre-bookings correctly, kept our hands sanitised and our travel minds open and flexible! 

First stop after breakfast at our new fave Broken Hill eatery (Temptations Cafe & Dessert Bar) was the excellent Albert Kersten Mining and Minerals Museum on the corner of Bromide St and Crystal Lane (yes all the street names in Broken Hill reflect its mining heritage).

We were all surprised at how fascinating it was to learn about this town's rich mineral history and its unique geology (as well as about the history of the planet - all 4 billion years of it!). As kids we always learnt that Broken Hill was about the silver, lead and zinc... but now I know there is a lot more to it than that.

This 42kg silver nugget holds pride of place as you enter the museum. (However it looked more like a lump of concrete aggregate than silver to me!)

The museum incorporates some of the unique square box construction used to support the underground mining operations in the main lode. It's very strong and constructed of imported oregon.

For a complete change of pace, after a restorative coffee, we then headed to Broken Hill's Regional Art Gallery, located in a beautiful heritage building in the town's main street (Argent Street).

The building, originally owned by the Sully Family, started life as a super hardware type store supplying tools and equipment for mining operations. You can see signs of its past function in the current gallery layout.

We enjoyed visiting this gallery - with its small eclectic collection. The group of 5 artists known as "The Brushmen of the Bush": Pro Hart, Eric Minchin, Jack Absolom, John Pickup and Hugh Schultz all had works in the collection so it was interesting to see them in the context of the unique Broken Hill landscape and the people who live and work here. Despite all this it doesn't mean we necessarily like Pro Hart's work though!

After lunch at Temptations (again) we headed north to the Living Desert State Park (about 12klms from Broken Hill), a unique 2400ha reserve that was established in 1992 for the protection of native flora and fauna and better management of the environment.

We did the hour and a half walk through the John Simons Flora and Fauna Sanctuary first. The 180ha sanctuary is protected by an anti-predator electric fence, gives full acknowledgement of its Aboriginal heritage and provides an up close experience of desert vegetation and landforms and some amazing scenery.

These types of shelters were built by the local Wilyakali people using Mulga wood and turtle bush in pre-settlement times.

The sanctuary also incorporates contemporary Aboriginal "Story Poles" too.

Deserts are really beautiful!!

This quartz outcrop was an important Aboriginal tool making site in pre-settler times too.

The Living Desert State Park is probably most famous for its extraordinary hilltop Sculpture Park, with its monolithic sandstone installations, big skyscapes and commanding views of the surrounding desert. 

As we entered the Park we couldn't help but notice what was probably the most superfluous placement of hand sanitiser (75% ethyl alcohol) that we'd seen in all our COVID era travels over the last 6 months!

Established in 1993, the sculpture park is a tribute to the vision of the Broken Hill City Council and the ingenuity of the locals in funding it, supporting the artists and getting the works in situ!

A great view of the city of Broken Hill (with its huge tailings mound) in the distance.

This is everyone's favourite sculpture I think (Mexican artist).

And this would be Abi's favourite I am sure.

 We finished off our day with a delicious meal at Temptations (again) tonight - our 4th visit there today (including a late morning coffee). We enjoyed our day very much and feel like we're starting to get a better understanding and appreciation of this amazing place now!