Queen's Birthday Weekend - Silverton, Broken Hill, Pink Lakes

On Sunday we left early again to drive even further up north to spend the day in the area of Broken Hill in New South Wales, which is like the beginning of the outback.

It was another long drive. We were happy that the clocks were turned back a half hour, which gave us some extra time in the day!

We drove first to the little community of Silverton in New South Wales - now there is an outback town!

Established in 1883, it used to be a thriving town of 3000 with its silver and lead mining industry, but now has less than 60 inhabitants, who live there mostly for tourism. There were only a few scattered old buildings like a church

and a masonic lodge and one or two dusty roads in the town. We stopped at the Silverton Hotel, the most filmed and photographed hotel in Australia! It has served as the location for many movies, like A Town Called Alice, and the hotel itself was filled with unique movie memorabilia everywhere.

The Mad Max movies had also been filmed in Silverton, and the famous black car stood proudly in front of the hotel, begging to have its picture taken. We also visited John Dynon's Art Gallery there, which is also the home to some old painted VW cars!

John is a world renowned outback artist, and is also a friend of our Aborigine guide from yesterday.

We headed back to Broken Hill, with its landscape of wide horizons, astonishing sunsets and ancient river gorges. This part of the country has inspired generations of artists, both Aborigine and Caucasian.

Many of the artist have set up galleries in their homes, and we spent much of the afternoon driving to some of the 30 odd galleries listed in Broken Hill. We visited the "BIG PICTURE" at one gallery, which is said to be the world's largest acrylic painting on canvas. Many individuals like Pro Hart and Jack Absalom used Broken Hill as the starting base from which they travelled into the outback, spending time with the Aborigine people. Then they became famous professional outback artists by depicting the landscape and the Aborigine people. Jack Absalom has written outback information books and bushtucker cookbooks (edible grubs, anyone?) and he hosted movies about the outback. His gallery also houses a fine display of opal specimens.

We stopped for a lunch of waffles and ice cream at an old 1950's ice cream parlour called Bell'

We managed also to fit in a tour of the Royal Flying Doctor Service base in Broken Hill.

This is the first, largest and most comprehensive aeromedical organization in the world, reaching out to those who live,work and travel throughout rural Australia in the vast Australian outback.

At sunset we drove out of town to the Living Desert Sanctuary and the famous Broken Hill Sculptures. These sculptures came about as a result of the Broken Hill Sculpture Symposium in 1993. A series of 12 sculptures were created at the top of a mountain with spectacular views in every direction. The carved sandstone monuments stand proud against the pink sky of the sunset.

It was an invigorating climb to get up the mountain to see them,

but a wonderful way to conclude a fantastic day!

The next day we rose early to make the long 8-hour homeward drive to Melbourne. It just amazes us how vast and huge the distances are in Australia. The roads are in great condition, but the drive is long and monotonous.

To vary it somewhat, we took a diversion off the beaten track to the Pink Lakes National Park. What we didn't realize was that it would become an additional two-hour detour along bumpy gravel roads! In springtime the surface of the lake water is actually a bright pink colour due to a blooming algae plant, which is the only species that can survive in the very salty water. The lakes are remnants from a prehistoric large lake covering the area, and have a density of salt much greater than the ocean. The lakes, in fact, were originally mined for their salt content. The salt bushes and foliage around the lake were most unusual.

It was a very remote park, with few signs of bird, animal or even human life. The four salt lakes actually turned out to look orange, as we were there in the winter.

We finally arrived home safe and sound in the early evening, after having experienced a most exciting and full Queen's birthday weekend!