Looking Around Broken Hill

                                  

                                   Royal Exchange Hotel Broken Hill

After arriving and having a day or two of rest, it was time to look over this very historic town. The Broken Hill area was started by pastoral farmers in the 1850s. The actual town was founded as a mining town in the 1880s. Of course, native people had inhabited the area for tens of thousands of years, but who is counting. They never made permanent camps because of the lack of water so the Europeans knew the land belonged to them because they wanted it.


The town itself is not very large; the 2011 estimate is just over 20,000 people here with no mention of the number of wallabies or feral goats. Feral goats seem to be the most populous of animals in the area. They seem to thrive on the scrub brush and multiply like rabbits, or even better. The people, not so much. Less than 300 babies were born last year in the entire western ranges of New South Wales.

The town is clean and the streets are very well taken care of by whoever does that. Most streets are four lanes wide as they had much room when the town was laid out. However, the earliest houses are very small, by our standards, and crowded close together. It would remind you of Britain or continental Europe which shouldn't be a surprise as the working class people are the ones who lived in these houses. As we are coming back to the late 1800 mindset toward workers in our country, the "ruling class" of those days thought of workers as just another tool for them to use to gain wealth.
                                   
                                             Trades Hall - 1921   

There is a monument in the middle of town which is to the women of Broken Hill who "stood by their man.”

Too long of a story to tell here but the women of Broken hill organized, more than once, to support their men and gain enough to be able to actually live and support a family. Conditions back at the turn of the 19th century into the 20th were worse than grim.
                                                 
                                                  Monument to Women's Brigade

Other than being cold all the time it is pleasant to walk around Broken Hill. There is a mall out west of town but their main shopping area seems to be thriving. It is almost like stepping back in time; a busy Main Street, people nodding and speaking to you and friendly merchants.

The common greeting is “ ‘Ow yer goin’?” Not many use the “G’day” greeting here to me as I am a stranger, I guess, but it is still alive even if this isn’t Sydney. Aussies have a very fast speech pattern and out here more speak “Stryne” than don’t, so I have difficulty figuring out what they said. After making a small purchase I was asked by a teenage clerk, “Izthettheluot?” in a high pitched voice up in the soprano range. She had her pretty head ducked, as I am not at all good looking, and had to repeat it twice. On her next try she asked, “Iz theah ennytheeng aelse?” By that time her first question had filtered through and I understood it and bravely said, “No, thanks.” She smiled at the retarded old man and gave me change. Similar scenes have been played out several times. When they get excited and start talking they talk as fast as an America teenager.

They do love their sports here. I love Aussie rules footie (football) and watch as often as I can. It is a strange sport to an American and I don’t think our footie players could stand a chance against a good Aussie Rules team. It has to be seen to be believed but imagine a player running as hard as he can and being tackled by 3 or 4 opponents as hard as they can. None of them are wearing anything but game shorts and sleeveless shirts. They can also kick the ball 50 – 80 meters while running full tilt.

It is faster than soccer, rougher than gridiron, more complex than Rugby and makes no sense to anyone other than an Aussie. The team I was barracking for lost one match by 103 points.

The coach quit during the next game.