Month: April 2017

Broken Hill Mining History

‘Line of Lode’ memorial to the miners who lost their lives

I’d never thought about what the initials in BHP stood for but now realise it’s the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Ltd.   The company was formed in 1883 after a boundary rider discovered what he thought was tin but turned out to be silver.  Broken Hill became known as the Silver City and in 1907 was the second largest settlement in NSW after Sydney.  Many people became wealthy but it was the miners who paid the price.

Each has their name, date of death and cause of death engraved on a glass plate.  There must be almost 1,000 names.   Most were killed in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Mining is still big business in Broken Hill today.

 

It’s a mad, Mad Max II world in Silverton.

Just outside of Broken Hill lies a historic mining town that seems frozen in time. Silverton is a film maker’s dream – a 19th century outback hamlet that has not seen much in the way of progress since its founding!

The rough stone built cottages and distinct lack of sealed roads make for easy set dressing and have attracted a number of movie producers to it. One of the most famous films that used Silverton as a base was Mad Max II and after shooting, many of the abandoned sets, props and costumes were bought/scavenged by a Pom who happened to live in the area.

And so the Mad Max II Museum was born, and a jolly interesting place it is too.

The sheer volume of stuff, which includes a mixture of real and reproduction items, has rather outgrown its current housing and could probably fare better with at least double the space. A great morning out for those of us that still love the edgy feel of the first two Mad Maxes!

Living Desert Reserve, Broken Hill

The 2 1/2 Bradshaws are now officially Outback.  Our first evening in Broken Hill was spent on top of a hill, watching a beautiful sunset amongst 12 huge sandstone sculptures.  They were created in 1993 by artists from around the world.

‘Horse’ by Jumber Jikiya from Georgia
Nhatji (Rainbow Serpent) by Badger Bates from Broken Hill
Bajo El Sol Jaguar (Under the Jaguar Sun) by Antonio Nava Tirado, Mexico

By the way, Broken Hill which is in New South Wales, has decided to be on South Australia time so we had to put our watches back half an hour.

Farewell to the Murray

As you can see the Murray River is a better colour here in Mildura and there’s a lot less mud.

“Little does Mum realise, dirt rolls plus river water equals lovely mud”

The tourist park across the river at Buronga (NSW side) was very busy as it’s the Easter holidays but it had some of the best facilities we’ve seen in a park – roomy grassy sites, a car washing facility, a dog washing facility, a free pet laundry, nightly movies to keep kids amused/quiet and plenty of room to sit and relax along the riverside.

“At last, somewhere to wash my smalls” – Winston

 

The Australian Inland Botanic Gardens, a semi-arid garden over 167 hectares.  Luckily you could drive round it.
Their prize specimen – a 2,500 year old mallee tree.

Tomorrow we’re saying goodbye to the Murray and heading north to spend Easter at Broken Hill.  Tonight we’re watching ‘Mad Max’ in preparation for a visit to the Mad Max Museum at Silverton.

The Mighty Murray

Thank you to Kim and Peter for having us to stay for a couple of nights at your lovely house in Bunbartha.  Winston especially says thank you for letting him have some sofa time and also to Oscar for letting him play with his toys.

We headed North to Echuca/Moama on the Murray River.  There are a few of these twin towns either side of the Murray, as it forms the border between NSW and Victoria.  Echuca is a large modern town but it feels as though you’ve stepped back in time when you walk through the Port of Echuca Precinct.

Port of Echuca Precinct speciality shops.

The main attraction though are the paddle steamers which cruise up and down the Murray all day.

Winston has learned to be a bit more careful when running down to the river for a dip after he sunk into some thick oozing mud and had to have a bath!

Whale fishing in Victoria

I popped into the local fly fishing spot to get a recommendation for the best fly to use on the Murray River and they sold me this!

Just for comparison, the titchy little thing below is the actual fly (now looking a little frazzled) that landed a magnificent 40cm Brown Trout which fed us for two days. By my reckoning, based on that scale, they have sperm whales in the Murray. Funny, I thought that they lived in the sea.

They tell me that the true target, Murray Cod, are basically a huge mouth with a tail and will happily consume unwary mice, rats, coots and small possums that are foolish enough to go for a swim. This I have got to see!!!

It’s beginning to get messy!

It was all going nicely through Qld and NSW – A lovely linear (well slightly weaving) progression between towns for the first few weeks. And then Victoria happened!

We are loving this state with so much heritage and a great abundance of farm fresh produce to enjoy, however Victoria is a higgledy piggledy mass of towns and villages all close together with no obvious route between them. Our map has suddenly become distinctly less tidy than before as we meander across this lovely State. It’s going to get worse too as we will be giving this fine region a second go later in the year on the return trip.

Happy Birthday Jonathan

Jonathan’s birthday present was a day at the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne.

We spent his birthday evening watching ‘Stargazing Live’ at SDM HQ aka Peter and Kim Read’s house.  They laid on an excellent port and cheese spread.