FRIDAY 23 SEPTEMBER     BROKEN HILL

It was back to being able to have a sleep in again, after the early starts of the past few days. Not that the surroundings were particularly quiet, with our fellow travellers packing up and heading out.

After breakfast, decided to go for a drive out to Silverton, the semi-ghost town, some 25kms to the north. This settlement was the site of a fairly short lived silver mining venture – as the name suggests, in the late 1800’s.

We had previously found the settlement interesting to wander about in, and loved the Horizon Gallery there, where we had on an earlier trip, purchased a couple of prints, that were still firm favourites.

Had a good browse in the Gallery. Really love the work of the two artist owners. After considerable debate, decided to – probably – buy two more prints from there. Spending some of our hard-earned wages! One was a rather dramatic work by Albert Woodroffe, of the Cockburn Range in the WA Kimberley. The other was by Bronwyn Standley Woodroffe, of an eagle soaring high, with the Pinnacles – SW of Broken Hill – in the background. Both were quite large and we would have to arrange to have them framed and sent to us, after we got home. To that end, we had to visit their gallery in Broken Hill and consult with their son, who did their framing. If that was satisfactory, we would buy the prints.

On the way back to town, turned off to visit the old Day Dream Mine – a silver mine that operated in the 1880’s, with an associated smelter. Although the mining here did not last long, the smelter was used to process ore from Broken hill, before the first mines there built their own. The remains of the smelter could still be seen.

We paid to both do the tour of the surface features, then John did the underground tour, while I wandered about up top and took photos. We had not been here before, and it was certainly worth doing once.

Back in town, went to the Visitor Information Centre. Interesting place with displays related to the mining history, of course. John bought a polo shirt with a mining structure logo on the pocket.

Fish and chips for tea tonight. They were much nicer than the Mt Isa ones had been.