Broken Hill: April 9^th and 10^th (Pictures) 

Silver is the big deal in Broken Hill, which may have the biggest silver deposit/find in World History. It sits on a vein that was 7.5 kilometers long and 250 meters wide. In 1883 Charles Rasp discovered a mine with ore that sometimes ran 1000 ounces per ton, well over a billion dollars worth of ore. The pit they left behind is known at the “line of the load”. Streets have names like “Bromide” and “Chloride.” Some serious mining went on here and besides one heck of a pit in the middle of a giant waste pile, they have an on-going memorial to the hundreds of miners who died along the way. The visitor’s center on top of the waste pile is free. But you have to pay to see the memorial and read how all of these miners died. That seemed a little bazaar to me but there were plenty of strange things here to go with it. Earlier, the guy at the “i” (Information) Center claimed that there was no fossicking to be done because all land was private.  Broken Hill is also home to Australia's labor movement and the 35 hour week.  I did find a lead to Silver City Minerals, a private museum that held promise for more informed advice on fossicking, but it was by appointment only and the phones didn’t seem to take coins.

I did get some Internet chores done while Cheryl was washing the laundry. Then we went to see Albert Woodroffe’s Broken Hill version of Horizon Gallery. We had a great time talking with him about computer graphics, sailing and building your own boat. He has been working a boat that, like the one I built as a kid, is way overweight and sits too low in the water. All the solar and water recycling equipment did it in. He also had a sailing ship sculpture in his gallery made by a friend out of pieces of metal junk that would have sunk like an anchor. I wanted to buy a card with one of his watercourse paintings pictured on it, but he didn’t have any. So he gave me a printed proof of a digital version of it for free and signed it!

Back at the Caravan Park near Silverton, I set up a time to visit Silver City Minerals early the next morning on our way through Broken Hill “and beyond”. It turned out to be the private collection of Milton, an underground miner at Broken Hill for 30 years or so. Most of the mining today is done with giant shovels, open pit, but Broken Hill has its share of underground works. Working at the rock face, lets you see the incredible mineral diversity up close and personal. Milton took home samples over the years and gave them labels and glass cabinets in a building behind his small urban lot. Then he also traded for other specimens. We paid money to see a commercial collection at the “GeoCenter” later that morning, and Milton’s was much better. It has been featured in numerous magazine articles and is world renowned. I also got some leads for real fossicking in the area should the occasion present itself. Don’t expect to see any gems, fossils or agates here though, minerals only please

The GeoCenter did have its share of nice minerals, but the biggest two draws were the world’s largest silver nugget, 42 Kilos (about 90 pounds) of pure silver; and the Silver Tree, a very ornate piece of silverwork made entirely of Broken Hill silver and with Australian themes throughout. We also took some fun picture: miniature Joe on a park bench, topless pedestrians and Joe picking up a miner’s wheelbarrow.

That was about as much fossicking-related tourism as Cheryl could stand for one day and we headed out to see some Aboriginal rock paintings and real desert country at Mutawintji National Park.