Silverton

Thursday 14^th April.

An important day for Cameron and Christel as it is their last day of School.  They are right up to schedule, and as the Correspondence School was closing for the school holidays, it made sense for Cameron and Christel to have a break too. Christel had sent some tests that Cameron had sat back to NZ and we had got the results back.  He was above average, or exceeding expectations in reading and maths, and at the expected level for writing, so that was very satisfying for both teacher and pupil. 

It has been our long time plan to get out to CAMERON CORNER (for obvious reasons), which is the point where the boundaries of South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland meet.  We had always planned to do this from CUNNAMULLA, out through THARGOMINDAH and NOCCUNDRA and then down to CAMERON CORNER, as a side trip on our way north, from BOURKE to LONGREACH.  However, because of the January floods, all the roads from this end were closed.  That left our only other option, to go from BROKEN HILL, north through MILPARINKA to TIBOOBURRA, and then across to CAMERON CORNER.

To this end, we rang the Information Centre at TIBOOBURRA yesterday to find out if we could get to CAMERON CORNER from BROKEN HILL.  They happily assured us all the roads we would need were open, however, they were expecting some rain on Thursday or Friday.  We checked the weather forecast for CAMERON CORNER, and TIBOOBURRA, and found they had a 60% chance of rain, but it would be very light.  After checking the weather report again this morning, it reported only 2.4mm of rain had fallen, so decided it would be safe to head that way.  Consequently we started to make plans to head to TIBOOBURRA on Saturday

In the meantime we wanted to visit the nearby old mining town of SILVERTON.  In its day it was a poor cousin to BROKEN HILL, with silver, lead and zinc all being mined there before the huge deposits at BROKEN HILL were discovered.  As a town, it was abandoned at about 1900.

SILVERTON is about 30 km west of BROKEN HILL, and our drive out there was made interesting by the amount of ‘floodways’ and ‘dips’ in the roadway.  These had been purposefully built along the road to allow runoff for floodwater when it rained. Judging by the amount of erosion and scouring at the edges of the road, they were obviously needed.  We also came across half a dozen wild horses wandering about in the scrub, and down a dirt side road, a place advertising camel rides, with half a dozen camels tied up waiting to be ridden. At $15 each for a 15 minute ride, I think they are still waiting.

Driving into SILVERTON was like driving into an 1800s American Western movie set.  Old abandoned stone buildings sticking out of the scrub,

 and red dirt roads overgrown with scrub and weeds.  The place really had an atmosphere.

 It’s no wonder it has been chosen as a location for films.  

After having a look around and taking a few photos we headed to the pub, about the only building that still functioned, for a couple of beers. 

We also had a look at a nearby animal park, and visited the SILVERTON Cemetery.  Talk about Boot Hill.  Old graves marked with steel fences placed randomly out in the scrub, again, just like you see in the old Western Movies.

After our refreshments in the pub, we drove about 6 km further out to Mundi Mundi Lookout, where from a parking area on a hill, you can look out over a huge flat expanse of land across the border into South Australia.  The land is so flat you can actually see the curvature of the earth on the horizon.  Fascinating stuff.

Back at camp, we found we had new neighbours.  As we walked past, the guy was outside doing something to his van.  I should mention here, that we have a NZ silver fern flag that we hang outside the van each time we set up camp.  It not only upsets the Aussies, but also generates quite a bit of interest, and people often wander over to talk and ask us about our travels.  Anyhow, this guy had obviously seen our flag, and as we walked past he said, “What part of New Zealand are you from?”  Usually if we say “Taranaki”, we just get a blank stare, so we said North Island.  “What part?  he asks. Taranaki we say. “I’m from Timaru originally, but been over here for about 20 years. I’ve got a brother who used to live in Taranaki though, in Waitara.  His name’s Andy Kennedy. He used to have a trucking business in Waitara, but he chucked that in and is living in Perth now”. “Did he used to be a cop in Waitara before he took up the trucking business?” I asked.  “Yeah” he says, “He was a cop for a long time in Waitara.”

Well what a small world.  Andy Kennedy worked in Waitara for about the whole time I worked in New Plymouth.  To make it even more of a coincidence, our caravan park caters for about 150 to 200 vans, and Andys’ brother and his wife just happen to set up right next to us. We had a good chat, and now we’ve got Andy’s phone number, and will ring him when we get closer to Perth.  Apparently Andy is employed by a mining company and works up at Tom Price in Central Western Australia, doing 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off, and gets flown to and from Perth for each shift.

Tomorrow, Friday we will do some washing, have a look at a couple of the mines and other things in BROKEN HILL, and then pack the car ready for our trip up to CAMERON CORNER.