It has been about 40 years since we last visited Broken Hill, used to come here regularly on business in the 70s. All I can say is that it hasn't improved much now that the mines are closed leaving behind a huge mullock heap (read mountain that towers over the town.
They even made a road to the top and built a memorials to all the miners that lost their lives since the mines opened in 1885.
Rather to our surprise, given the number of tourists in town, the restaurant and visitor centre inside the very nice building was closed for business in the middle of a week day.
Walking through this one reaches a lookout perched over the edge of the mullock wich gives a birdseye view of Broken Hill.
To reach the lookout one walks past a wall with glass plates, each one commemorating a miner who died working the mines.
The dates start at 1885 and the last one is in 2007, the youngest died at age 14 in 1886.
The oldest died at age 73 in 1917.
It is interesting to note that as time went by there was obviously more attention paid to the miner's safety as the number of deaths each year certainly decreased.
The latest recorded death in 2007 was put down to a Remote Controlled Loader Accident.
From here we made our way to Silverton some 30km NW of Broken Hill.
This little outback town was made famous by the Mad Max movies. I am told a lot of the cars used in these Mad Max movies are on view in the Mad Max museum, but as we haven't even seen one of those movies we didn't visit that museum choosing to visit the historical museum in the old Silverton Gaol instead.
One of the original cells in this gaol.
A quick walk around the area showed up these cars, painted by a local artist.
And finally this old FJ40 studded with metal bottle caps.
