Broken Hill NSW, Sulphide Street Railway Museum, Steam locomotives, Y class, T class

Broken Hill NSW May 13, 2015

Art Gallery day, starting with the Regional Art Gallery - nice building....

Actually, they had several big displays on of Aboriginal art, well not the traditional dot paintings, but a whole bunch of what looked like necklaces made from anything that could be found, a whole room of colour-splash art and a grouping of portrait photographs of the Elders from Blacktown. I thought the photos were excellent, must have a go at this portrait lark one day.

They also had a whole gallery of an eclectic mix of old 'proper' paintings, impressionist, dot paintings, modern and contemporary, who knows. The two old proper ones were the standouts, in that they were in the traditional model where the models are almost lifelike. Had to laugh though, at the top of the stairs, in the top of the stairwell, they had their entire Brushmen of the Bush collection: a few Pro Harts, one Jack Absolom and one other somebody. 6 in all. That was it. Not too good considering these artists are the ones that put outback art and Broken Hill on the map. Oh, there may have been a small Sidney Nolan hidden in another gallery with a couple of Rupert Bunney

We followed up by going to a gallery we went to last time: WendyMartin and if we hoped to see another similar to the one at home we were to be disappointed. Just like Eric McCormick yesterday, their art seems to have moved on. Judy took the consolation prize of some handmade jewellery.

We filled the car up and then went and filled ourselves up at the local cafe. We then had a parting of way: Judy went shopping, I went to the railway museum.  As mentioned, they built their own tramway (not railway, that was illegal) from Broken Hill to Cockburn in SA. The NSW government finally brought the train to town, and built their own station, naturally. Note that the railway gauges were different between NSW and SA, so to go from Sydney to Adelaide, you got off at Broken Hill railway station and walked the two blocks to Broken Hill Tramway station and off you went again. I assume that this was one of many train changes until the Indian Pacific made the journey in one piece in 1970.

Silver ton Tramway Company station. Broken Hill NSW

Silver City Comet. Parkes - Broken Hill, 1937 - 1989. Broken Hill NSW

Silver City Comet, 1st class. Parkes - Broken Hill, 1937 - 1989. Broken Hill NSW

 

Silver City Comet kitchen. Parkes - Broken Hill, 1937 - 1989. Broken Hill NSW

'T' class loco. Broken Hill NSW

Broken Hill NSW 

Broken Hill NSW

We made one last tourist visit, this time to Bells Milk bar, advertised as a 1950's sort of place complete with museum. It makes its claim to fame by just still being there and the fact that they produced their own syrup for the milkshakes. We were not really impressed, it is fairly forgettable.

On the way back I snapped a picture of one of the old mine heads, this one looks like its about to collapse (they are usually straight up and down on the lifting side). The mine is the Rasp mine, named after the fellow who found the silver and lead deposits at Broken Hill in 1883.

Mine-head. Rasp Mine. Broken Hill NSW

I'll throw this one in as well, it's the mine that was a tourist attraction for 30 odd years up until it closed in 2007. Mervyn and I went underground on this very tour in 2002. BHP have since sold the mine and the new owners are mining under it from the Rasp mine, thus making it unsafe for tourists

Mine-head. Delprat shaft BHP mine. Broken Hill NSW