2017 Broken Hill
September 5, 2017
Broken Heels and Mungo Men
5th – 14th September 2017
Why visit Broken Hill?
Megan and I had lived in NSW for a long time, but neverventured further west than Dubbo. Long car trips weren’t our thing. ThenDominic came to visit us in 2016 and chose of all places to visit, BrokenHill. So when we read about a weekendfestival held in Broken Hill to celebrate the making of the movie Priscilla wethought, why not?
It takes a couple of days driving to get to Broken Hill, passing though Dubbo at lunch time on the first day. It is a long way to drive to a place you know very little about. So we decided to pad the trip out with a visit to Mildura – an irrigated fruit growing area on the Murray, and also visit Mungo National Park with its history stretching back over 40,000 years.
We approached the trip with some trepidation as the idea of driving 600 or more kilometres in a day was daunting. But by sharing the driving we were able to cover the distance in relative comfort. The holiday greatly exceeded our expectations:
– We found the vast emptiness of the outback fascinating. Far from finding it boring, we enjoyed the way the desert scenery constantly changed.
– Broken Hill and Mildura were both well-kept cities with obvious civic pride, good eating, and plenty to see.– The Broken Heel festival was great fun – largely because of the party atmosphere and the way the locals got involved. We would have appreciated some entertainment other than drag after three days – but that isn’t what the movie Priscilla is about!
– The day excursion to Mungo National Park was well worth the trouble getting there. It was surprising to see how much wildlife survives in the arid environment, and visiting a place inhabited for over 40,000 years was quite mind-boggling.
The biggest challenges we encountered were seeing and dodging road kill on the highway, and bringing the right clothing for a climate that swings between 4 and 32 degrees!
Tue 5th Sept – Sydney to East Maitland
Broken Hill is 1,100km from Sydney – a good two day’s driving. To get a head start, free of the early morning Sydney congestion we drove up to East Maitland (near Newcastle) on Tuesday night. The original plan was for me to pick up Megan from work and drive her home to give some extra packing time, but I bashed my forehead against the sharp corner of the car door waiting for her in Pyrmont, and so she ended up driving home whilst I clutched tissues to my head.
We had a slightly earlier than usual dinner and were on the road soon after 6:30. After a short diversion in the dark when the GPS incorrectly directed us to Cessnock, we found the Best Western Endeavour Motel on the old New England Highway. A minimal unpack for the overnight stay found that the only thing we hadn’t packed was our travel face washers.
Wed 6th Sept – East Maitland to Cobar
After a quick breakfast in the room we made an early (for us) departure at 8:30. Our route took us up the Hunter Valley then off to the west through Denman and Dunedoo to Dubbo. Because of the large distances involved we decided to share the driving with the precision used on a boat to set watches. Each driver would have 90 minutes at the wheel – long enough to make significant progress but short enough to avoid fatigue.
Dubbo was a little over half-way to Cobar and we stopped for lunch. After consulting Trip Advisor we headed to the Dahab Café in a back street. How eating in country NSW has changed over the years! Dahab offered tasty healthy Mediterranean dishes in pleasant surroundings (an old house) with easy parking outside.
Leaving Dubbo with a full tank of diesel, we encountered our first straight outback road as we took the Mitchell Highway north-west to a rest break at Nyngan and then the Barrier Highway west to Cobar. We encountered our first of many oversize loads with large mining equipment taking up most of the road. The roads were good and the traffic light, so we got to our motel in Cobar by 5:30 – 650km in 9 hrs.
Cobar is a boom-bust town dependent on copper mining. It is in a boom phase at the moment and the Cobar Central Motor Inn was doing a good trade providing accommodation for mine workers in their Hi-Vis work wear. We were given a room that faced outwards, and not into the central parking area which was nice and quiet. It was super convenient for eating as the Cobar Bowling Club is just across the road serving all the usual Country club dishes.
Thu 7th Sept – Cobar to Broken Hill
The next morning there was time for a quick look round town before resuming our journey west. The first stop was the Fort Bourke Hill Lookout – a public viewing area looking down into one of the larger Copper mines. Although the open cut doesn’t rate as large by Australian standards – it was the biggest man-made hole I have seen.
The Cobar Miners Heritage Park on the main street had a collection of relocated mining relics – with an attempt at grass between them. The signage was very informative – something we enjoyed both in Cobar and later in Broken Hill.
The 260k to Wilcannia on the Barrier Highway was characterised by increasingly arid scenery. The long stretches of straight road disappeared off into the heat haze – and vehicles had their headlamps on to assist with visibility. Road trains became the norm, but because they travel at the speed limit (110km/hr) we didn’t have to overtake often. We saw our first live emus and camels – but more distressing was the large amount of road kill on the road – mostly kangaroos. By the roadside were large herds of feral goats – that seemed to be better able to avoid the trucks – but at one point we encountered a billy goat standing in the road and Megan had to do an emergency stop. It shocked us – but surprised far more the guys in a red sports car who were overtaking us at the time.
Our first driver change-over was at the Emmdale Roadhouse. From there it was just over an hour to the isolated town of Wilcannia on the Darling River. It was lunch time, and unsurprisingly there is not a lot of choice in town, but we headed for a gem – Miss Barrett’s Café. After nearly 3 hours dodging road kill on the featureless Barrier Highway any coffee stop would be welcome, but Miss Barrett’s was an eclectic oasis. It was another café housed in an old house – not serving coffee that morning because supplies hadn’t been delivered but making nice tasty lunches. We met up with the boys travelling in the red sports car – who were dressed ready for the Broken Heel festival and had driven down from Byron Bay!
After looking at the muddy Darling River we took the Menindee road out of town. I was surprised to find it surfaced – but that was just to fool us – after a few more bends it turned into dirt, 139 km of dirt! It was a well graded road with few surprises but it was virtually featureless. At one stage we thought there might be a car coming in the opposite direction – but when we got close it was just an isolated flock of sheep stirring up the dust.
It took us two hours to reach the shores of Lake Menindee where we stopped at the lookout by the railway line. The lakes were quite full (they are used as water supply for Broken Hill) but we didn’t see many birds. We then took a diversion by Lake Pamamaroo to see the historic base camp site used by Bourke and Wills (as Megan is distantly related to Wills). The interpretive signs and survey tree are on the edge of a camping area by the shore of the river. The area was surprisingly attractive and, having seen how hostile the outback was to explore, the context of the early explorers was quite moving.
The last leg of the 495km day-3 journey west was an hour to Broken Hill through increasingly undulating scenery. We put our watches back ½ hr as Broken Hill shares South Australia’s time zone. Our arrival in Broken Hill from the south east was dominated by the vast slag heap that towers over the town. Our hotel was the Ibis Styles, just one block away from the Palace Hotel where the Broken Heel festival was to be held. We had a corner room on ground floor with external windows looking out onto the coach terminal next door – so instead of being troubled with the noise from other guests, we had the 4am departure each night of the rail bus to Dubbo! That night we ate in the hotel restaurant as we were too tired to go searching down the main street for food. I had a stuffed dates and paella – a welcome change from the usual country offerings of Pizza, Burger, and Schnitzels!
Fri 8th Sept – Broken Hill
Friday was our opportunity to explore Broken Hill as the festival events didn’t kick off till the evening. After visiting the shopping centre for fruit (as we were now within the fruit fly exclusion zone) we drove up to the top of the slag heap to see the Broken Hill Miner’s Memorial. Other than the views over town, it was worth visiting for the remembrance wall inside listing all the miners who have died working the lode and how they died.
We continued our tour round town on foot, following a historical trail with informative signs on the footpath. This took us to the Sulphide Street Railway & Historical Museum which focusses on the Silverton Tramway. This was a private railway that connected Broken Hill and Silverton across the state border to the South Australian railways, and which was also responsible for Broken Hill adopting South Australian time. The museum had a collection of railway carriages and engines you could go inside. As with most country museums their collection had strayed into the less interesting local “junk” with rooms full of old photographs and household memorabilia.
We had intended to visit the Living Desert reserve in the late afternoon sun to see the rock sculptures, but we baulked at the $12 admission when we got there, so we turned around and looked at the views from a couple of free viewpoints in town!
We didn’t know what to expect of the opening night at the Broken Heel festival – so we made sure that we had a good meal first (at a popular Italian restaurant) and rugged up warm (as one of the stages was outside and an overnight low in single figures was forecast). By alternating between the inside cabaret stage (warm but cramped) and the outside stage (cold but plenty of room) we were able to enjoy a lot of first class drag acts – including a fireworks display synchronised to a Priscilla Tribute show. Friday was a good warm-up to the weekend’s events as the attendance was lower and you could move around the Palace Hotel freely.
Sat 9th Sept – Broken Heel Festival – Street Parade
Saturday started slowly – partly because a bird had flown into a substation and blacked out most of Broken Hill. As the day warmed up we headed out to the festivities. The sun shone on the Broken Heel street parade which recreates the scene from Priscilla the movie where the queens do “One lap of the Broken Hill main drag, in drag. “ The locals turned out in droves to watch, and some of the costumes were really amazing.
Saturday night at the festival was even bigger than the Friday night and the Palace was packed! We managed once again to stay warm and entertained – and met a lot of interesting festival goers to talk to. When the DJ came on late in the evening we decided that a warm bed was preferable to an ice-cold dance floor and we headed back to the hotel.
Sun 10th Sept – Broken Heel Festival – Silverton Day Out
Sunday showed the promise of warmer weather to come (up to then the day time max had struggled in the high teens). It was Silverton Day – where the festival moved out to the nearby abandoned mining town of Silverton. This was where scenes from Priscilla (and Mad Max 2) were shot. The festival laid on a shuttle coach – but we took the car for the short trip so we could “do our own thing”.
On the way out of town we grabbed a Subway sandwich and then drove the 26k to Silverton on a road with 39 dips – each crossing a floodway. We had our picnic lunch in the grandly named but dusty Penrose Park and then took the dirt track back round to the Silverton Hotel. The crossing over the (dry) Black Hill Creek bed was very unimproved! At the hotel things were already in full swing with a crowd (mostly locals) taking all the tables in the outdoor entertainment area. We were glad we didn’t need to eat there. The show was a bit more of the same (after 3 days we were getting over lip-syncing no matter how good) so we left at the interval and walked up the main street to visit the museum in the old Silverton Gaol. This was a classic country town museum with rooms full of just about everything, and very little specifically about Silverton! But like all these collections you can always pick out some exhibits that are of interest and skip the rest.
Back at the hotel a long queue was forming for the bus back to town. We had an ice cream and then gave a lift to the “boys from Byron Bay”. Before heading back to town we drove out to the Mundi Mundi lookout which does have the feel of being at the edge of civilisation. The view west is over a completely flat plain extending to the horizon – you can even see the curve of the earth! With the obligatory pictures taken we headed home.
Sunday night at the Palace Hotel was definitely the wind down event. Everything was inside, out of the cold, so we didn’t have to have heavy coats. There was more (of the same) entertainment – but plenty of space to wander round and chat to people.
Mon 11th Sept – Broken Heel to Mildura
On Monday we were back on the road, for the relatively short trip (290km) heading south from Broken Hill to Mildura. At first the road was straight and featureless, the only hazard being avoiding the road trains carrying mineral sands from the Ginkgo and Snapper mines. After an hour or so we entered the Darling River anabranches and crossed ephemeral lakes that supported a wider range of vegetation. The approach to Wentworth was typical of the outback roads. One moment you are cruising along at 120km/hr with just a few trees ahead. The next moment you round a bend, hit a 50km/hr zone and houses appear – 50km/hr feels so slow!
We made a diversion in Wentworth to see the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers. Together these two rivers drain over a million square kilometres in south-eastern Australia – an area larger than the combined size of France and Germany.
From Wentworth in NSW it was a slow trip over the border to Victoria, through urban sprawl and irrigated orchards to Mildura. The day was fine, if windy, so we opted for lunch in the riverside park at Café de Caravan. This is a bit of a misnomer as the kitchen is in a converted shipping container not a caravan! We had a tasty lunch sitting outside under a sun umbrella.
A short distance downstream was Lock 11 part of the improvements to make the Murray navigable. If you had never seen a lock before (remember there is no canal system in Australia) then this is probably exciting. We just walked across the gates to the island, where as usual there were good interpretive signs.
Our base for two nights in Mildura was the City Colonial Motor Inn. We were hard pressed to find any fault with the accommodation. Perhaps the swarm of bees outside our door when we arrived was unexpected, but they soon flew away. The room had a nice set of extras – like a mains extension board for charging mobile devices, plenty of lights, and bright outlook onto the lawns in front of the motel.
Mildura was a pleasant, if slightly sprawling, town with a clear civic pride. We were within walking distance of Woolworths (to get supplies for a picnic the next day) and the main shopping/eating street. Many restaurants were closed on Monday so we reserved a table at Thai-Riffic. I am reticent about visiting country Thai restaurants having had some less than inspiring Thai meals outside Sydney. The service at Thai-Riffic was friendly and we ordered some unusual sounding dishes from the menu. The taste was good – but it was clear the customers in Mildura don’t except there to be chilli in their food!
Tue 12th Sept – Mungo National Park
With the temperature climbing rapidly to 32 degrees, we set off early to Mungo National Park. There are two routes from Mildura into Mungo, one all dirt, and the other surfaced for half the way (but a bit longer). We chose the latter so that Megan could start the day with a fast run up to Pooncarie. We changed drivers at the start of the dirt and were visited by one of the largest flocks of galahs we have seen. Top Hut Road was in good condition as it hadn’t rained recently. At one point we passed a rally of people driving tractors – you meet some strange things in the bush!
After paying our park entrance fee and looking round the Mungo Visitor Centre we set off on the Foreshore Track trail. This two hour walk passed through a number of different areas on what was once the western shore of Lake Mungo. There were plenty of explanatory signs which helped us to spot things we would normally have walked past.
Then it was lunch time, so we grabbed a gas BBQ and set about cooking some sausages. The BBQ took $1 coins – and we had just one between us – which was lucky! The gas ran out when the sausages were almost cooked so we closed the lid of the BBQ to keep the heat in and waited till the sizzling stopped. Whilst we were eating the wind got up, and we could see clouds of sand rising above the lunettes on the far shore of Lake Mungo.
We drove across Lake Mungo (it has been dry for about the last 10,000 years) to the east shore and walked out on the board walk to see the “Walls of China” – eroded sand dunes showing strata dating back over 100,000 years. This is where 40,000 year-old Mungo Man was discovered giving a new perspective to the Aboriginal story. The sand blowing over the dunes added a special quality to the view which we able to capture in our pictures. I had been a bit sceptical about driving 4 hours just to see some eroded sand dunes, but the sense of timelessness and arid beauty won me over.
On the drive home we reflected on how much wildlife we had seen in a desert park in just few hours; Kangaroos, pink cockatoos, emus, green parrots and a death defying stumpy tail lizard in the middle of the road, to name a few.
A great day called for a special meal – so we made a reservation at Brass Monkey – a sort of reworking of the Melbourne laneway bar in a country town. This dinner was the best we had on our trip, both in terms of the food, and the service. We had already looked at the food menu on-line but the wine list was a pleasant surprise both in terms of the variety and also the very reasonable price by the glass. We chose the barramundi with green apple salad, slow lamb shoulder, and a cauliflower side. Each dish had a distinctive and complementary taste so we ended up sharing everything!
Wed 13th Sept – Mildura to Wagga Wagga
We said good-bye to Mildura and goodbye to the arid scenery as we headed up the Murrumbidgee to Wagga Wagga. We stopped on the 560km leg at Hay for lunch after crossing the Hay Plain. Friends had previously remarked on the featureless Hay Plain – but after the scenery around Broken Hill we found it relatively full of activity and interest. Hay was a bit of a challenge for lunch as it is an isolated town off the Sturt Highway and so doesn’t get much passing trade. We had a watery coffee and wraps in the Havachat Coffee Lounge – but we didn’t hand around long chatting. The highlight was a slice we shared afterwards – berry and walnut.
The phone GPS decided to take a break just as we arrived in Wagga so we had to navigate to the Carlyle Suites the ‘old-fashioned’ way. Our final night’s stop was conveniently located; on one side was the riverside walk whilst the other entrance lead out into the main shopping street. After over seven hours in the car we stretched our legs with a brisk walk along the riverside and then back through the centre of the town. Wagga had more of the feel of an East Coast city than an outback country town.
Our final dinner was a casual, budget dining option at the Sportsman’s Club Hotel. Mid-week the hotel was quite empty, and their daily special of a “Breckie Parmie” (with asparagus, bacon and baby spinach) was quintessentially neuveux Aussie cuisine. It even came with a plate of salad from the salad bar.
Thu 14th Sept – Wagga Wagga to Sydney
It was 4 degrees in the morning at Wagga so we had to put on coats for the first time to load the car.
An early start meant we had to replan the proposed lunch time stop in Goulburn. Instead we pressed on down the freeway and stopped in the Southern Highlands (where it had only warmed slightly by mid-day). Berrima is very focussed on (ripping off) tourists – so we didn’t have a particularly good value lunch, but in another hour or so we were back home.
Total trip 3180 km average speed 79.5 km/hr