Broken Hill began as a mining town and continues to operate as one today. Ore was discovered there in 1883 and that same ore body became the largest single source of silver, lead and zinc ore ever discovered on earth, generating over $100 billion! It now relies on mining and tourism as people visit there for an outback experience. Known for its mining, its artists, and its landscape, Broken Hill is a relatively easily accessible outback town... located only 8 1/2 hours west of Dubbo.
We booked into the Aussie Bacon and Eggs Cottages in Broken Hill for our 3 night stay. With the cottage rental (the cottage is a renovated miner's cottage from back in the day) came bacon, eggs, bread, and margarine for your breakfast while you stayed. It sounded so perfectly "outback" that I had to book it!!
Our whole reason for making this big southern loop of Australia and including Broken Hill in our travel plans was to get Dad to Lake Eyre. That was to take place on our second day in Broken Hill and so for our first day, we visited the sites!
Travelling out to nearby Silverton, it was again very flat, except for the many dips in the road from where the flood water would have gone through. With a hard rain, you could easily have flooding in these areas and water level markers and flood paths are all around. I was fascinated by the red dirt in particular, on this trip. It just seemed sooo red! I don't think the photos do it justice, but we tried. For me, I've never travelled to our east coast of Canada and so, it is unique for me and it is also iconic as part of the Australian landscape.
Silverton was once a booming mining town, but with the booms comes the lows and it is now not much more than a tourist stop and a ghost town. It is probably most famous as the location of the Mad Max movies (some of them) and Mission Impossible II (which I didn't actually know until now). It is also well known in Australia for its artists, in particular Peter Brown who is considered a true outback artist. He is well known for the humour in his artwork, the big eyed emus he depicts and the fact that he paints with a combination of paints and coffee to get just the right colors. He no longer has a studio there, but now is closer to Dubbo, in Molong. Memories of his artwork still remain in Silverton as you will see in the photos I will post. We also visited the Mundi Mundi Plains which is just north of Silverton... there was honestly nothing to see but land. Beyond the Mundi Mundi Plains lookout, we followed the Bitumen (that's like black top/pavement) to the Umberumberka Resevoir.
The day was a very hot and windy one, so while Dad and I were loving it because of the photos we were getting, Mom was not such a fan. Mom said that she's now seen enough of the outback and prefers little Dubbo and some of the other places we visited.
For sunset in Broken Hill, there is no other place to be but at the Living Desert Sanctuary and the Broken Hill Sculptures. The sunset photos through one of the sculptures is another iconic photo of this outback town. A group of artists from around the world, came together to create the sculptures that are now part of the Sanctuary. People flocked to here and it was hard to get a photo sometimes, but we were fortunate enough to meet a wonderful group of high school students who were on a massive 2 week trip of outback Australia and visiting with them, made the crowd a bit easier to bear.
This was the day, the big day...one of the main reasons for doing this particular 2 week journey.... to help Dad celebrate his 65th birthday in a pretty amazing way!
Dad and I had watched a couple of documentaries on Australia before I came over. One was on the deadly animals/insects/etc that live in Australia (Awesome, thanks for that!) and the other was on Lake Eyre. Neither of us had ever heard of Lake Eyre and the documentary was fascinating. It talked about how the lake had only been full a few times in the last 100 years and that when it was full, all of these birds, frogs, animals and so much more, flocked to the lake. One type of frog actually hibernates while the lake is dry and only comes to the surface when there is water. With so much rain since I arrived, I figured we would have a good opportunity to see Lake Eyre with water in it. So, I booked us a day trip/flight from Broken Hill.
We met the owner of Silver City Scenic Flights, Dave Hart, and were briefed on what our day would entail - an amazing outback adventure from Broken Hill to Marree, over Lake Eyre and back to Broken Hill. We then met our pilot, Drew, and were on our way in a 6 passenger (tiny) Cessna 206.
We travelled Northwest out of Broken Hill, which took us over Silverton and Umberumberka Reservoir, which we had seen from the ground the day before. This took us from New South Wales into South Australia. We then crossed over the "Dog Fence" which is a "pest-exclusion fence that was built in Australia during the 1880s and finished in 1885, to keep dingoes out of the relatively fertile south-east part of the continent (where they had largely been exterminated) and protect the sheep flocks of southern Queensland. It is one of the longest structures in the world and is the world's longest fence. It stretches 5,614 km..." (Wikipedia).
Drew told us about some sheep stations which have up to 3 million acres and we even flew over one that had their own landing strip for the Flying Doctors to land in case of emergency, and for the owners to check over their land and sheep. He also commented how lush and green the land was. You don't usually think of outback Australia and lush or green, and didn't seem overly green to us, but there was a tinge of a green mixed in with the very red dirt.
Continuing Northwest, we flew over Lake Frome which is a large salt lake, 100km by 40km, lying mostly below sea level. We then crossed the Flinders Ranges, which boasts one of the most well known national parks in Australia. Matthew Flinders is a significant name in Australia, with many streets and buildings named after him wherever we went, as he was one of the original explorers to many parts of Australia.
It was morning tea time, an Aussie institution that I absolutely love, so we landed in the outback town of Marree. Marree sits at the junction of the Birdsville track and Oodnadatta track and is an important outback junction. In the late 1800s, Marree was a staging post for Afghan traders whose camel trains carried supplies to isolated settlements of the outback. As motorized vehicles became more popular, the camels were set lose creating a major feral animal problem and many were killed as a result. The prescence of camels can still be seen in Central Australia, and there are even camel races that take place in Marree and other outback towns.
Our morning tea location was the "airport" which was a small mobile work trailer with a molding ceiling falling down and a crooked toilet. It was quite a site but the tea and biscuits were a nice treat.
Up in the air we went again bound for Lake Eyre, and by this time, I was not feeling well in the back of the plane and was doing my best to not throw up in front of the cute pilot :) Dad was much more alert in the front and so now, he adds his bits to the blog..
Lake Eyre was named after the first white man to explore the area. It is the largest salt lake in Australia and the largest salt pan in the world. When the North and South lakes are full, they cover almost 10,000 km2. It lies 16 meters below sea level and is the catchment from Queensland, South Australia, Northern Territory and parts of Western New South Wales, making it one of the largest internally draining systems in the world.
Lake Eyre was 85% full when Stephanie booked this trip for us, 3 months ago. We had hoped to see it as this same water level when we flew, but as we discovered, the water had evaporated to leave the lake only 5% full (and that's being generous).
It was absolutely incredible to see something that size and to appreciate the fact that it changes so quickly, from a paradise for bird and fish to a salt pan. At times, when you were looking at the salt pan of the lake, you couldn't tell sky from land. It reminded me of a white out in Alberta in January!
Dad is a man of few words, and he's not a blogger... so I'll continue for him :)
It was a really incredible sight to see, although I was in and out of consciousness, trying to make my stomach settled. At one point, I looked down, and like Dad said, there was nothing but white all around. The only thing that stood out was the pink algae that you could see in what was the lake bottom. Honestly and truly, one of the most amazing things I am sure we will ever see. It was disappointing that there wasn't water in the lake, but it was still spectacular in a different way.
Flying back from Lake Eyre, we once again landed in Marree, but this time for lunch. The "airport" was a little bit out of town, so the owner of the local roadhouse had left us a car to drive into town for lunch. The car was better than walking of course, but only 1 window went down, the rest were covered in cobwebs and it was 42C!! There wasn't much in the actual town besides a pub, a roadhouse and a gas station, but the food was good and again, it was part of our outback experience.
The rest of the flight back to Broken Hill was as interesting as the trip up. We saw more outback and more incredible sights, but honestly, Dad and I could go on and on and on...
It was an awesome way to celebrate Dad's birthday and an amazing way to end our 2 week Aussie adventure! Sharing this with Mom and Dad meant so much and I feel truly blessed that we were able to share it together.
So, 4600km, 1 territory and 3 states, we returned back to my Aussie home of Dubbo and settled back into the routine of school and exploring the places I've come to know and love.
Until next time...
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