Mildura to Broken Hill

DAY 2 – MILDURA TO BROKEN HILL

Everyone up early this morning, except Tessie – good to know some things don’t change!!  But my husband started his health kick with a 14 km walk this morning.  AND he is eating fruit!!  We should have done this trip years ago. 

The drive from Mildura to Broken Hill is amazing!  Quintessential Australian outback.  Just kilometres and kilometres of flat, open spaces as far as the eye can see.  The sense of vastness – emptiness – peace, is profound.  The kids are so enjoying listening to their music and watching the beautiful landscape pass by.  Beth in particular keeps saying how much she loves it and how much more this is ‘the real’ Australia for her. 

We arrived early into “windy Broken Hill” – so windy that we could not even put up the awning.  Hopefully the kids won’t blow away tonight.  We have put the tent in between the van and the car so they shouldn’t blow too far!

We went out to try to find David’s great-grandfather’s grave at Broken Hill cemetery.  It took much looking but finally found Maurice Hansen, who died in 1917 and his two year old son, Frederick, who died in 1919, in the “Catholic part” of the cemetery!  Very moving to stand there and pray with Maurice’s great-great grandchildren.

Off to Silverton after that and what an amazing drive!  I suppose I have never been to this part of our country before so I am finding all the new vistas just so inspiring.  The word that just keeps coming to mind is vast.  It is just so expansive, this country.  Driving to Silverton, as far as the eye could see was just flat red dirt, spinifex, tuffs of grass and the (very) odd small tree.  We stopped just short of Silverton for some photos of a herd of brumbies grazing beside the road.  Not worried by us at all, they looked at the kids taking photos like they were a pack of Japanese tourists! Just on the other side of Silverton is the Mundi Mundi lookout, where many of the scenes from Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert and Mad Max movies were shot.  It truly takes your breath away – the immenseness of the outback.  It gives you a real sense of the spirit of the land.

The old Silverton Gaol is now a museum housing memorabilia from all aspects of the relatively short life of Silverton (1884 – 1896) which is now a ghost town.  The educational, sporting, and domestic odds and sods were amazing for the kids to see.  They were not impressed with the little school satchel the school children used, nor the toilet for the prisoners! 

The Silverton Hotel, where some of the scenes from A Town Like Alice and Razorback were filmed, was a great place to visit for a drink (or a hot chocolate and a warm up by the fire for Sarah) and the solving of puzzles for the kids on the bar! Looking forward to snuggling up in my nice warm bed and reading tonight – ok I do feel a bit bad about my kids out there in the cold – although they keep telling me:  “Take a ‘chill pill’, Mum, we are fine!!”