Broken Hill

Friday 15^th April

After the morning chores were done, we headed into town for some sightseeing.  Our first stop was at what was called the ‘Line of Lode’.  BROKEN HILL is named after a range of hills that border the town, and are basically full of the ores which are being mined, and for which the town is famous. 

The ‘Line of Lode’, refers to the layers of the different ores buried deep within the hills.  The tops of the hills have been levelled off, and a museum and information centre built on top.

 There is also a monument building, listing the names of all the miners who have died there, since the mines first opened together with their age and how they died.  Quite sad reading about 14 and 15 year old boys, killed by falling down shafts, or crushed by machinery etc.  A reminder of the high price to pay for our precious gems and metals.

Our next visit was to a Mineral Museum which had a brilliant display of the hundreds of different minerals, ores, gems and crystals discovered in the mines.  There was one nugget of pure silver weighing 42 kg, and another lump of some ore about the size of a rugby ball which weighed 45 kg.  Some of the colours of the various gems and crystals were absolutely brilliant.  There was also what they called  ‘The Silver Tree’, a solid silver sculpture of a tree  about half a metre tall, that was sculpted out of a single silver nugget.  

After this it was back to the van for the rest of the afternoon which was spent organising and packing the car ready for our trip up to CAMERON CORNER.  We expected to be away about three days, so there was quite a bit of organisation to do.  One day travelling from BROKEN HILL to TIBOOBURRA, one day to go from TIBOOBURRA across to CAMERON CORNER and return, and then the third day to return back down to BROKEN HILL.  The roads would be too rough for the caravan, so we were going to tent the trip like we did around Tasmania.  We had arranged with the Camp Managers to store the van in their camp while we were away. Little did we know what was in store for us.  Watch this space.