The locals have made good use of the mullock heap by building a visitors centre/restaurant on top.
and it provides an excellent vantage point to look out over the township.
Next to this they have built a memorial to the 800 odd miners who have lost their lives in the mines;
The memorial can be seen from all over Broken Hill. A sobering reminder of the dangers of mining even today.
We have been pleasantly surprised by Broken Hill the city. The streets are wide and straight and mostly tree lined. The city is laid out mostly on a grid pattern which makes getting around a breeze.One of the interesting town planning features is that there is a lane behind each street that runs north south. So for every street there is a similarly named lane.
The house blocks are quite small, long and narrow. The houses are generally very small. There are a few modern homes and a lot are well maintained. A few even have lawns. In general though the general state of housing ranges from cute, comfortable to dilapidated.
Corrugated iron dominates the architecture of Broken Hill. The roofs are made of it, the walls are lined with it and most fences are made of it. Even the modern houses have corrugated iron fences
To a lesser extent stone has been used to build houses. (Note the down pipe alignment) Hec would have been in his element here this is his style of building. Function over style.
Guess what? More corrugated iron architecture! Oh sorry, brick fireplace.
For a city built in a semi-desert environment and over 100km from anything like permanent water, Broken Hill feels like an oasis. The main park, Sturt Park, is in the city centre and it is magnificent. Lush green lawns, cool shady trees and beautiful rose gardens. In this park is a memorial to the bandsmen who played on while the Titanic sank.
As you can imagine the churches are much more magnificent than the size of the city would suggest.
The catholic cathedral is the largest church...
and St Andrews are two examples.
Mining still continues in Broken Hill but the heyday is long gone. Just last year 400 miners were retrenched when a mining operation was scaled back. In spite of this set back to it's main reason for being, you get the impression that Broken Hill intends to survive long after the mines are gone. The city seems progressive and enthusiastic in a laid back country way. One of the city initiatives was to commission 12 sculptors both locals and internationals to do a sculpture from a block of Wilcannia sandstone. These 12 sculptures have been placed on top of a hill about 10km out of town in what is call the Sculpture Symposium. The sculptures and the setting is quite extraordinary.
We (as many people do) climbed to the top of the hill (quite a walk) to see the sculptures and watch the sun go down .
Not only did we witness the sunset but with a southerly change coming through we saw a grand vista of rain, rainbows, dust storms, lightning and some spectacular storm clouds.
On our first full day in Broken Hill we did the Heritage Trail self drive. Up and down and round and round Broken Hill. Very interesting. We found an original 1950s style cafe/milk bar call Bells. Stepping through the front door transport you back to the fifties.
We ordered up two malted milk shakes. $14....what? Not 1950s prices! Then they arrived....yummmm. Absolute bliss.
Amongst other things we have been visiting the artist galleries as we go. We of course made a pilgrimage to the first and greatest Broken Hill artist; Pro Hart. It is the only gallery you have to pay to get into. Obviously no photo inside but we were able to take a photo of Pro's painted Rolls Royce.
Pro is much loved and respected by the locals. He has donated many of his sculptures to the city for display in parks. This sculpture represents miners in the cage going down the mine shaft and the expression on their faces.
This sculpture is an example of one of Pro's common motifs; ants
On our second day we take the city walking tour guided by a local lady born and bred. The tour is heavily steeped in the union working class history and community spirit. The local newspaper "Barrier Daily Truth" was started by the union during the 1908 strike to carry their side of the argument.
The peak organization of the unions in Broken Hill is called the Barrier Council. Their headquarters "The Trades Hall" which was started in the 1890s is testament to the power and influence of the unions. During the communist era the building was referred to as Kremlin by the locals. The nondescript mayoral chambers across the street was called the bunker.
Outside the bunker are bronze busts of the the "Syndicate of Seven" (the seven men who each contributed 70 pounds to form BHP). These busts were sculpted by a local artist Geoff DeMain. We visited Geoff's gallery and had a chat with him about his work. He is probably the most creative, versatile and multi-talented of the artists we have seen in Broken Hill. His whole life exudes art; his restored house (former bakery), his garden, stone garden, wall with embedded heads and carving, he sculpts, he paints and who knows what else.
The architecture is very early 20th century generally reflecting the time when the "Hill" was most prosperous.
The Post Office....
Typical commercial building....
The pubs....(this one featured in Priscilla Queen of the Desert)
another commercial building of the early 20th century.....
another former pub....(there is literally at least one at every intersection)
the small but beautiful and inviting town square.....
the facade of the former town hall....(original bell tower timber structure was eaten out by termites a few years ago, so what you see now is a replica in steel)
part of the sky line of the main street (not what you would expect in a semi desert mining town)....
There are quite a few shops and buildings vacant and boarded up. The surviving shops are cavanous and carry huge stocks. They must be struggling on. There is a big new Centro shopping centre on the outskirts of the CBD with Woolworths, Big W and other chain type stores.
One of the things you notice in Broken Hill is that the doors to places are always closed. It is very hard to tell with some places if they are open or even still in business. From the street the city does not look very welcoming (the doors are closed and the shop windows displays are almost non-existent). Once inside you find a nice welcoming environment. Houses are a bit the same. Doors and windows closed to the street view. Probably more to do with the need to keep the dust and flies out, than being unwelcoming.
