Advertisement
Published: March 28th 2022
Edit Blog Post
We started today with a visit to the Tourist Information Centre hoping for some advice on how we are going to fit everything on our list into just three days! It may have been a mistake because we ended up with information about even more places of interest here in Broken Hill and surrounding areas?!
We decided to start with a Heritage Walking Tour at 10.30am. The walking tours are conducted by volunteers who have, generally, worked in the mines so have first hand knowledge of the mines and mining. Our tour was conducted by retired miner, Ray, who spent 35 years working in the mines. He provided us with heaps of mining information and interesting anecdotes. It’s always great to hear about a place from a local.
The tour started at the TIC before crossing the road to the Kintore Headframe built from Canadian Oregon. We learnt that the cages could carry one draft horse or 12 men. I reckon it would have been pretty squeezy for 12 men! However, being squashed during the ride down and back up again from the work face was, I think, the least of their worries. The conditions that they worked in
were pretty horrendous.
Ray made stops at Rotary park, featuring statues by Pro Hart, the Sulphide Street Railway Station (1905) and the site of Broken Hill’s newspaper, the Barrier Daily Truth. We continued past Trades Hall and the council building (known locally as The Bunker) where we leant about The Syndicate of Seven, the men who founded the Broken Hill Mining Company in September 1883, before forming the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) in 1885.
We took a quick detour into Sturt Park to see the bandstand, the Titanic Memorial and the rose garden dedicated to the Port Arthur victims. We continued past the Civic Centre, the Post Office (1892) and the façade of the old Town Hall which dates to 1891. Famous for its hotels we walked past a number of the city’s hotels/former hotels including The Palace Hotel, famous for its role in the movie ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’. We also saw the Central Police Station (1890), the Technical College (1900), the Court House (1889) and street art commemorating the Afghan cameleers.
After the tour it was time for some lunch at a café on Argent Street before returning to a couple of
buildings for photographs without the rest of the walking tour participants photo bombing them! We popped into the newly restored BHP Hotel to book for dinner on Tuesday night and then returned to our cars via The Palace Hotel of ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’ fame which we booked for dinner tonight. While we were in there we photographed the artworks adorning the walls … and the ceiling – a copy of Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ - of the stairwell.
Since the Pro Hart Gallery is situated quite close to the house we are staying in, we returned ‘home’ via the gallery. For $5.00 entry charge we were able to view and photograph originals and reproductions of Pro’s art and other pieces of memorabilia, including four of his Rolls Royces, one of them an artwork in its own right! Across the road from the gallery we found a small plot featuring some more of Pro’s large, metal sculptures. He dabbled with quite a range of artistic styles and media during his career.
It was quite warm, around 30°C so we decided that was enough sightseeing for today.
Steps for the day: 9,807 (6.52km)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.061s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0314s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb