The Silver City



Kate loved the sand at Menindee

 Menindee is a small simple town surrounded by Lakes. We stopped at the sports ground for lunch and the kids enjoyed the playground, sand and sports oval to play. We found the Markwick and Pajalic families at the Menindee Lakes lookout all glad to see each other and ready to discover what Broken Hill has to offer. We headed off in a convoy travelling 118km before arriving at Broken Hill.

The BIG bench at Broken Hill

Broken Hill is set amoungst an area which is rich in minerals which is why it is Australia's longest lived mining town. Besides its mining Broken Hill is also famous for its Art with some big name artists such as Pro-Hart making their mark in the town. Many Australian movies, such as Mad Max have used Silverton, just 25km out of town, as a backdrop.
Our first stop was the Miners Memorial which was on top of a hill which gave 360o views of the town. There were all sorts of old machinery around to look at and for the kids to play on and of course the Big Bench, which was built to give adults an idea of what it is like for kids to sit on a bench. It was huge and a bit daunting.

The kids love playing on the machinery

The miners Memorial was built in memory of over 800 miners who have lost their lives while mining. It gives you just an idea of how hard it would have been back then for the miners, there were so many different causes of death and just to name a few; crushed, inhaling too much dust, machinery accidents and buried underground.
We got to overlook a mine pit and although it was interesting it was not a pretty view.




Looking over Broken Hill

More mining equipment

Our next stop was the Rock Sculptures which are just a few km's out of town. They were very impressive and very clever. As the sun was starting to set we decided to set up camp nearby so we found a clear flat spot by the dry sandy river to fit 4 camps. The kids did a great job collecting the firewood so we could enjoy a warm fire.



Sculptures





Our camp near the sculptures