WE’RE IN PETERBOROUGH AND BROKEN HILL

 THURSDAY 19TH SEPEMBER   -  We left Wallaroo and drove for 179    kilometres through some beautiful countryside with really deep green velvet fields that were so smooth they looked as if they’d been painted.   We passed by “Lovers Lane”, “Wild Dog Hill”, Bull Ant Road”, “Rocky Bend Road” and “Wild Horse Plains”. Our destination was Peterborough, the historic rail town.    We stayed at the Peterborough Caravan Park, which was a 5 minute drive into town.  It was a small older style park with views looking over beautiful fields and hills on the horizon.  It was very peaceful and relaxing sitting outside looking at the view.  There was a park with duck ponds next to the caravan park and lots of ducks and birds waddling and roaming around the grass and splashing in the ponds.

MURAL ON THE LADIES TOILET

MURAL ON THE MEN'S TOILET

We set up and drove into the Tourist Information Centre in town which was inside a restored first class sleeping carriage of the East West Express from 1917.  It had pressed tin ceilings, leadlight glass windows, leather seats and polished timbers and was a real feature of the town.

Outside the Town Hall was a statue of Bob The Railway Dog.   He was an iconic scruffy German Collie dog that the town adopted.  He loved riding on trains in the late 1800’s and took every opportunity to hitchhike on trains, trams and Murray paddle steamers.  He often took himself off on interstate trips and was always welcomed by everyone wherever he went.  His favourite seat was on top of the coal box.  He was 13 when he died.  His body was stuffed wearing his collar.  His collar is now on display in the National Railway Museum in Port Adelaide.  

We went into the newsagency to see The Burg  a 22 metre long mural with 20 panels painted by local artist Des Parker, depicting the history of Peterborough.  It took him over 12 months to complete the paintings and there were also lots of historical photos and memorabilia with the display.  It was beautifully done and displayed and was a real work of art and love by the artist.

We visited the Town Hall, one of the largest heritage listed town halls in South Australia.  We saw The Federation Quilt a 2 x 3 metre handmade quilt donated by the Peterborough Patch Workers to commemorate 100 years of progress of the town and surroundings.   It was in a custom built glass display case inside the Town Hall foyer and was beautifully sewn and displayed (photos didn't come out as they were shot through the glass).

FRIDAY 19TH SEPTEMBER   -   We went to Steamtown a sound and light show shown nightly which is a multi award winning show.  We sat in a 1916 rail carriage that had been converted into a theatre car for the one and a half hour spectacle with the illuminated 23 bay round house as a back drop.  The show told the story of the creation of Peterborough as the crossroads of rail history, linking the East Coast to the West Coast and the link from Adelaide to Alice Springs which all crossed through Peterborough. It relived the famous visit of General McArthur in 1942.  There were personal stories recounted by some of the people involved and their families in creating rail history.  It was a fascinating and interesting show.  We were so glad we didn’t miss it.  It was $30 each.  Outside in the yards there were some of the original carriages from The Transcontinental and Ghan trains.

SHEEP TRANSPORT CARRIAGE

JUST IN CASE OF ACCIDENTS!!! INSIDE ONE OF THE REPAIR CARRIAGES

THE BACK OF THE THEATRE CAR ON THE ROUNDHOUSE

SOME OF THE 23 BAYS AT THE ROUNDHOUSE

1ST CLASS CARRIAGE ON TRANSCONTINENTAL TRAIN WITH PIANO AND AIR CON FITTED IN 1936

SATURDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER   -   We left Peterborough and drove for 281 kilometres through Yunta where we stopped for morning tea, Crystal Brooks, Jamestown, Cockburn and then crossed over the border into New South Wales once again and arrived in Broken Hill at 1pm.  Funnily enough Broken Hill is still on South Australian time (half an hour behind NSW time) and they still have South Australian newspapers, dating back to the copper boom times and the steam train era.  We stayed at Broken Hill Tourist Park part of the Top Tourist group.  It was a very big, dry and dusty park with wood chips on the ground by the caravan sites.  There was a small grassed area for pitching tents.  The facilities were older style and there really weren’t enough toilets and showers for the size of the park.  It was also completely booked out as it was the start of school holidays.  It was very expensive too - $44 a night (including our usual 10% Top Tourist discount).  We had to go on the “big sites” as all the other sites were taken.  

Broken Hill is Australia’s longest-lived mining city.  The seam has produced more than 300 million metric tonnes of ore – the equivalent of filling over 1,500 concert halls in the opera House.

It is an isolated mining town in the far west of outback NSW.  The closest major city is Adelaide.  Broken Hill is known as “The Silver City”, “Oasis of the West” and “Capital of the Outback”.  It has a population of over 20,000.

It all began in 1885 with BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited) mining the World’s richest sources of silver, lead and zinc, which to date have generated over $100 billion, with BHP now one of the World’s largest mining companies, turning over $400 million each year.  These precious metals and minerals gave Broken Hill the strength to sustain Australia through 2 World Wars and 2 Global Depressions.

Broken Hill is 1,150 kilometres from Sydney.  It has more galleries than pubs in town.  

We visited Pro Hart’s Gallery in town.  Outside the Gallery he had 4 Rolls Royce cars on display.

PRO'S CUSTOM DESIGNED ROLLS ROYCE

He was born Kevin Charles Hart in Broken Hill on 30^th May 1928.   His nick name “Pro” came from “Professor” as he was considered to be a bit of a know it all.  He worked as a train driver in the mines for 19 years and said his paintings kept him sane in the darkness and isolation of the mines.

He’d come home every day from work and go straight into his studio to paint.  He was discovered by a gallery owner from Adelaide in 1962 and as his fame grew, he travelled the World and met Kings and Queens .  Prince Phillip has some of Pro’s paintings in his private collection. 

Pro dropped paint from a hot air balloon and fired it from a cannon.  He was always experimenting with different colours and techiques.

He died peacefully at home in Broken Hill on 28^th March 2006. 

It was a fascinating display and some of the paintings were for sale.  His studio is still set up the way he left it with all his paints and easels on display behind glass windows.

SUNDAY 21ST SEPTEMBER   -   We drove 23 kilometres to Silverton as the Silverton Hotel had a country festival on for 4 hours.  It was crowded by the time we got there and the singers and music were in full swing.  Silverton has a tiny population of 60.  It has many historical stone buildings.   The actual hotel has featured in over 100 movies and commercials.

Opposite the Hotel, we visited Silverton Gallery.  It had some lovely local and unique paintings, many of which we wanted to buy.  They were pretty pricey, so like most other people we only looked and didn’t buy.

The town is enjoying a new lease of life as a popular location for films and television.  Some of the movies filmed there were Mad Max 2, A Town Like Alice, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Mission Impossible II, along with many commercials.   We visited the Mad Max Museum and saw original and replica cars, bikes and life size characters in full costume plus other memorabilia.

From there we headed out to see the sculptures in the Sculptures and The Living Desert Sanctuary set in a 180 hectare reserve.   It was the brain child and creative idea of Lawrence Beck a Gosford-based sculptor.  There were 12 magnificent gigantic sculptures on top of a hill overlooking the valleys of the Reserve.  Each sculpture was painstakingly created using tungsten carbide hand tools by a team of sculptors from Syria, Damascus, Mexico and Bathurst Island.  The massive project started in April 1993 with 52 tonnes of sandstone being transported from 240 kilometres away.  The largest sculpture weighed 8 tonnes. The project had ssupport and funding from the entire town.  A “Sculptors Symposium” base was set up 8 kilometres from the work site.  Tents, showers, toilets and a kitchen were erected with beds donated by the local hospital and catering supplied by the State Emergency Services.  It took over 2 months to complete the sculptures with the team permanently on site.  There were walking trails around the sculptures and on to the living desert but we wanted to visit another gallery in town and we were running out of time.

VIEW OVERLOOKING THE VALLEY WHERE THE SCULPTURES ARE LAID

We went back into town and visited Silver City Art Centre – home of “The Big Picture” – the World’s largest acrylic painting on canvas (12m x 100m).   It was painted by Peter Anderson, the talented brother of the Gallery owner Chris Anderson and his wife.   It took over 2 years to complete and Chris told us his brother was in there pretty much night and day during that time.  It took over 9 tonnes of paint to complete the painting and includes most of the landmarks around Broken Hill  including the Sculptures, The Pinnacles, Flinders Ranges, Mundi Mundi Plains, Barrier Ranges, White Cliffs and Menindee Lakes.

We entered the display through an old mining tunnel at the back of the gallery and came out on to a timber viewing platform all along the painting.  

ONE SECTION OF THE MAGNIFICENT "BIG PICTURE"

It was totally mind blowing and not at all what we’d been expecting to see.  We thought it would be a big flat picture but it was a semi-circular diorama and was so realistic we felt that we’d actually stepped into the desert with bird sounds, didgeridoo sounds, animal sculptures on the ground and climbing bushes and trees in the 300 tonnes of red earth on the floor and 10 tonnes of native rock, trees and scrub.   The ceiling was painted in sky blue and clouds.  It took us a while to take it all in.  Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos – they couldn’t possibly have done this masterpiece justice in any case.  We felt so calm and serene and were mesmerised looking at each part of the whole painting.  It was certainly worth the $7 fee to see it.

The rest of the gallery was full of ceramics and tin animals, glazed tile paintings and really bright paintings by local artists.  Chris had a great range of opal and silver jewellery for sale that he makes.  I bought 2 beautiful tin macaw parrots that I just couldn’t resist, one bright orange and the other a gorgeous turquoise.    He does mail order on line, but he’s so busy that the list isn’t usually up -to -date.   The Gallery is also home to The Broken Hill Chocolate Factory with delicious fudges and chocolates and sweets for sale.

We wanted to stay another day or two in Broken Hill, but the site we were on wasn’t available and we didn’t want to move again to a much smaller site for just overnight. 

Most of the tours and places of interest in Broken Hill were looking at mine sites, underground hotels and houses.  We had already done those at Coober Pedy.  

NEXT WEEK:  We will be free camping for two nights on our way to Tamworth.