2024 SA Trip Part 3 - SA to Broken Hill
Heading out to Broken Hill to cross off a few bucket list things I have wanted to see that are around Broken Hill. Traveling on the Barrier Highway from South Australia through to Broken Hill and the countryside becomes pretty desolate along the way. Not much out here except kangaroos, emus and goats. Lots and lots of feral goats. They are everywhere. The trip was pretty uneventful until around 4km from Broken Hill when an emu decided to run flat out from the side of the road smack into the side of the car. Minor damage to the car sliding door but it did not do the emu any good at all. Cannot understand why it would do that?
Panoramic view of Barrier Hwy. scenery.
While heading away from Eric & Cheryl’s I passed through a couple of nice little towns before I got onto the Barrier Highway that heads to Broken Hill. These towns were interesting and I was especially impressed with Peterborough. A very attractive town with plenty to do and see and it is well setup to cater for RV traffic. One thing of interest in a lot of South Australian country towns are the town entry signs and Peterborough had a classic. I believe each entry into town has a different locomotive but I did not have time to check them all out.
A Broken Hill Tourist for the Day
I only had one day in Broken Hill so I set to and tried to cover all the major tourist landmarks in the area.
Big Things
Always on the hunt for Big Things in the places I visit I managed to find a couple in town, a big ant and a big park bench.
The big ant is mounted on a timber structure that looks like a mine head winch tower and is meant to symbolise the miners who toiled in the mines and worked together like the ants.
The park bench had no reason I could find but is placed on top of one of the old mullock dumps on the outskirts of town and would provide a great view of the city if a giant were to want to rest there. It was also used as a prop in some scenes in the Mad Max and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert movies.
Silverton
A trip out to Silverton which is only around 30km from Broken Hill is a must do item. Shocking road out which has 39 dips or floodways that bounce any load in the car. I had to re-strap the bikes when I got there as they had all moved
An old mining town, it has a lot of history and some great old buildings, some quirky places to visit. Famous for its silver mining history and its part in some iconic Australian movies such as Mad Max and Priscilla, it is a trip worth making.
The Mad Max Museum is a must for anyone who has seen the movie and the Silverton Pub is also worthy of a visit.
I loved some of the old cars and buildings around the place as well as the quirky spots in town.
Mad Max Museum
A trip to Silverton would not be complete without a visit to the Mad Max Museum. A collection of vehicles and other items from the film all stored in a shed that would not be out of place on the movie set.