Easter Road Trip Broken Hill Day 2

24 April 2019

Silverton, population 50, 1172km (728miles) west of Sydney, an old mining town but referred to as a ghost town.

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The setting for the movie Mad Max II and the location of a museum of artefacts from that movie

A couple of quirky local artists.

Another scary part of my journey, was driving to the Daydream Mine. 20km of, what I felt was, rough off road track. My poor Corolla Hatch copped a pounding. But you cannot go to the Outback without getting red dirt all over your car. I was reassured by locals that my car will make the trek, and it did. I want only sealed roads for the rest of my trip.

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The Daydream mine have a tour which takes you 30 metres (100 feet) down an old silver mine shaft. What a tough profession, mining was, still is, but in those days, doing everything by hand, in heat topping 51C (124F), only crazy Aussies. The guide, Jason, is a wonderful character providing information, of the hard work of a miner in the 1800s, like only an Aussie can entertain.

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Easter Road Trip Day 6 Broken Hill

23 April 2019

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I arrived at the most western town in New South Wales, Broken Hill. The reason I decided on this road trip. From White Cliffs I had to go back to Wilcannia to take the road to Broken Hill. Only one place to stop between Wilcannia and Broken Hill is the Little Topar Hotel.

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The hospitality was typical country although their “ring for service” bell might make you believe they do not offer friendly service. But the rabbit trap “ring for service” bell is typical Australian humour.

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Broken Hill, known as the silver city, the Capital of the Outback, is the longest lived mining city in Australia. The break in the hills which gave the name to Broken Hill no longer exists due to being mined away.  The city has beautiful heritage listed buildings.

And modern buildings.

The Living Desert and Sculptures of Broken Hill is the perfect place to be for sunset.

 

The Palace Hotel is the Outback site for the movie, Priscilla Queen of the Desert. The movie starts in my local area, the Imperial Hotel in Erskineville Sydney and ends in the Palace Hotel Broken Hill.  Broken Hill now hosts the “Broken Heel” drag queen festival in September each year. I don’t like to be negative in my blogs but these 2 drag queens were not a good advertisement for the Broken Heel Festival or drag queens in general, on this night. They had just completed a show for the Indian Pacific guests and were in the foyer in full view of patrons hoping to get a photo opportunity. They eventually capitulated but they were the most uninviting Drag Queens I have encountered. Hopefully this was just a bad night because they gave drag queens a bad image.  Give me good old Sydney drag queens any day, oh, and the Idaho Queen of drag, Minerva Jayne.

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famous paintings seen in Priscilla Queen of the Desert

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