Over the last almost 50 years I have reached Broken Hill twice and those fleeting visits left only sparse memories of the city. This time I and family members spent 5 nights there and the impressions are much better formed and likely to be memorised for a long time. Broken Hill has an interesting history. Back in the latter part of the 19th century it was the second biggest town in NSW after Sydney. Why? Explorers there discovered the world's largest ore body containing silver, lead and zinc As with most large mineral bodies, nearby towns experienced a population explosion and the town's population rose rapidly towards 30,000. Needless to say, the town has a large collection of historic buildings, as we shall see shortly.
However, as is the case with nearly all mining towns, once the ore body diminishes or becomes exhausted population edges away. Back in the early 1960s, Broken Hill had around 30,000 people. Forty years later in 2000 that figure had reduced to 20,000. Today that figure is now estimated to be around 17,500 and government forecasts suggest a further reduction to around 13,650 in 2041. Perhaps little can be done to prevent this outcome since the ore body is reducing in size and the regions population is to put it mildly sparse. This reflects the environment's semi-desert condition. If there is a local growth industry it is tourism travelling to BH itself and also places like White Cliffs, Silverton, Menindee, and Pooncarie - all on our travel agenda.
In this post I focus on the town and its surroundings. We walked around the city centre several times admiring the town's early architecture.
And right you can see a memorial to women who stood by their men in troubled industrial times.
It's worth a visit.
AS
1 comment:
Love the pics of you at the milk bar! I have to confess I didn't pay much attention to the buildings during my visit to Broken Hill and I was surprised to see such beautiful and historic architecture in your post.
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