Day 222 Broken Hill, NSW

And just like that, here we are in New South Wales, well as far as borders are concerned that is.  Broken Hill has considered itself part of South Australia for a very long time and it even works on South Australian time.  It goes back a long way to when the New South Wales government would not extend the railway line from Broken Hill to the South Australian border because of the different rail gauges.  The people of Broken Hill got together and formed the Silverton Tramway Company and at their own cost extended the line the last 30 kilometres to have a railway line from Broken Hill to Port Pirie.

It was very cold when we left Peterborough this morning and was just starting to rain as we drove through the town.  The rain is certainly following us!  

The scenery went from this....

to this......

The country couldn't have looked more like the drive between Julia Creek and Richmond if it tried!  It was very flat with hardly a tree in sight but still an enjoyable drive with hardly another vehicle on the road.  We stopped at the little town of Olary, that is nothing more than a pub, to get Philip a coffee while I walked around the abandoned town.  These towns (we drove through quite a few) were once thriving little towns in the old steam train days.  The trains had to stop to replenish their water and no doubt anyone on board would step off the train for refreshments.  I could see the remains of a bakery in the background of the photo below.

Arriving into Broken Hill was not at all what I had expected, as are a lot of places we have visited in this journey.  There is a wind farm out to the north and I tried to count how many turbines there were but it was in excess of 50 (actually 58) and produces 199,000 megawatts of power making it the biggest wind farm in Australia. Just on the outskirts of Broken Hill is a massive solar farm.  I read that it supplies enough power to 17,000 homes and that is around about the population of Broken Hill.  

After we have set up camp and I have cooked us lunch we have two places to visit.  The first is the Line of Lode Miners Memorial situated high above Broken Hill on a mullock hill where the views over the township are magnificent.  The memorial is undergoing a major upgrade and is still a work in progress but it will be amazing when it is finished.  As you walk through the tunnel with a glass wall etched with the names of the 800 men lost during the mines operation, it is a time for reflection and a stark reminder of just how dangerous the mining industry can be.

Next place on our long list of things to do in Broken Hill is the Living Desert & Sculptures that is about 12 kms to the north west of Broken Hill.  The Living Desert Reserve is spread over 2400ha and was established in 1992.  The Sculptures are located on a hilltop with 360 degree views.  The 53 tonnes of sandstone for the sculptures was transported from Wilcannia and 12 sculptors were chosen to carve out of the sandstone their interpretation of the area.  The sculptures are magnificent and as I read the artists interpretation of their work I could absolutely see what they were depicting.

Tomorrow we are going to have an easy day after two days of driving, and we will walk along Argent Street that is around 10 street blocks of Heritage buildings.  We drove down this street today and I am looking forward to walking along it.  We have decided to have lunch somewhere - perhaps a counter meal at one of the hotels.  In its heyday there were 70 hotels in the Broken Hill township. Now, just a handful remain.  "They" blame Drive-Thru Bottle Shops and home Air-Conditioning for the demise 😂😩

Philips GoPro contribution.......