Tag Archives: Silver City

Hi folks,

finally the car is fixed after some fuel filter issues – although I’ll believe when i see it…..40 kms out of town and nearly a full tank compared to the 1/4 tank i used up during the last attempt to leave!

You’ll be pleased to hear that The Palace (Marios) Hotel of Priscilla fame IS open again…and lookin’ damn fine. And anyone who ever went to The Union Hotel in Fitzroy, Melbourne will be surprised to hear that the world’s best barmaid, Sarah (who worked at The Union and who is always really friendly and attentive) is now managing the joint. I hung there last night for a while but unfortunately no pics (too jacked off with car issues). Was going to leave town today but am tempted to perhaps spend another evening at The Palace. ‘Mmmm.

Anyway, in the meantime I wanted to upload a few pics from The Silver City.

You know when you’ve arrived in The Silver City when you see all the Tonka toys lying around…

Tonka Toys

Tonka Tyres

Moonrise over Broken Hill

A Tree which Thinks It’s a Pole

I love the chemical and matellic street names around town: Argent, Iodide, Kaolin, Sulphide, Chloride, Bromide, Mica, Oxide, Cobalt…..

The Main St: Argent St

Packsaddle – 168 kms

The road outta town to Packsaddle. I’ll go there one day. I didn’t go there this time – but love the name. Was actually looking for the old abandoned drive-in that I photographed last time I was here. No such luck finding it this night – the big old funky ‘Now Showing’ sign may have been removed.

‘Mmmm, maybe I tampered with this one, below, a little. What’s the missing word? Either way, pretty uninviting façade.

Broken Housewives Association

Corro Iron Addiction – modern version

On the other hand there are some really characterful houses and buildings around…

Denley Butchers

I love this joint

Funky Church

Civic Building

Corro Addiction – Old School Style

…and big wide streets, some beautifully gum-lined like this one, and others rolling up and down, up and down…

Gummed-lined Street

Lots of fun rolling hills around town

Broken Earth Restaurant - atop the old slag heap.

Broken Earth Restaurant – atop the massive old slag heap.

Street Scene – with Broken Earth visible atop the slag heap.

And I love towns where there are empty lots and the local kids use them as playgrounds and cut-throughs. Plenty of these around…

Shortcut through empty block

Stormy Sky

Night Storm Clouds Over The Musicians’ Club

What an incredible avante-garde exhibition – Tony Town Ace reflected in the glass!

Moon Rimlighting Clouds

Da Moon, Da Moon

…great excuse to include some of The Mighty Boosh….

Unity – Friendship

The Golf Course! Seriously.

Romance of The Swag

…Haven’t used my swag yet, It’s been too damn hot most nights.

even the tolet block is funky

Lovin the Lines

Christmas Lights at Dusk

…This one festooned house was the one and only, overlooking part of South Broken Hill.

Rob ex ‘Top End Meats’

Rob (and daughters??) ex ‘Top End Meats’. Sat morning fundraiser for colleague’s ill daughter. Great fella.

Rob ex ‘Top End Meats’

Old BHP Site-Office Remains

…Let’s hope the Woodside proposal for James Price Point (Walmadan) leaves just as little impact. BHP is one of the minor joint-venture partners. Other partners include BP and Shell, who are pushing for the much more appropriate and economically viable floating liquified natural gas processing platform out at sea.

Is this Hunter G?

…not sure, but this is Andrew, the RAA (RACV) man with the tiny fine-tuning spanner….

Andrew The RAA (RACV) man.

Pro Hart‘s Grave with Dragon Fly

Pro Hart’s grave, with design of Dragon Fly etched into stone, gets a visit from the real thing (hovering in the above pic and landed on the RH wing in pic below). The grave-stone was designed in this way to imitate the sheen and reflections one often finds on still waters over which dragon flies like to explore and hover. Even the real dragon fly itself is reflected in the watery stone in the image above.

Pro Hart’s Grave with Dragon Fly

The following was part of a long and enjoyable encounter with a local (who will remain anonymous at this stage – if you’re out there and see this, let me know if i can insert your name) who left his mark outside the Anglican church on his wedding day – a set of burn-out marks from one of his many powerful motorbikes. No surprise, the bride’s father (a very religious man) was NOT AT All impressed and demanded the groom clean them off – that was a few year’s ago!

Religious Skid Marks

Anglican Church – complete with the infamous markings, an ongoing reminder to the devoted.

Ok, that’s all folks…for the moment. Thanks for dropping in. Bye for now, Hunter G

Silver City Highway – Part 2

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A few pics to fill in the space that lies between Mildura and Broken Hill…

Approaching The Silver City Highway

Weed Spraying

Who’d o’ thought, way out here in the middle o’ nowhere? He stopped, asked me what I was doing. I said, shooting’ road kill. He didn’t flinch – I like the unquestioning, non-judgemental acceptance.

We stood under the blazing sun chatting for half an hour: me getting some outback driving tips from him; and he telling me stories of bush politics, the need for weed spraying/roadside grading to keep the wildlife away from the road edges where any occasional rain runs off and collects, tempting the animals to tempt fate for a lovely fresh feed. $800 a kilo for the chemical spray, 3 kilos worth, lasts for about 9 months; and telling me how one of Australia’s most financially successful photographers, Ken Duncan, stayed on his farm a couple of decades ago to create a photo-essay. He was always with camera and up pre-dawn every day to catch the sunrise.

Roo

…but despite the weed spraying, it doesn’t always go to plan. In fact there was enough road kill out here to sink the proverbial ship.

Emu

…an extraordinarily beautiful and moving sight. What a striking resting pose.

Emu

…and here’s a beautiful live one to help balance the emu ledger and keep you squeamish folk on board 🙂

Emu

…but not so lucky this poor beautiful lizard. Is it a blue tongue? He looked fine from a cpl of metres away, and I almost expected him to lazily move on when I approached.

Lizard

Rest area, complete with Christmas tinsel…but virtually no shade…

Christmas Rest Area

…and then more of this…

Roo

…but then this oasis nearly smack-bang between Mildura and Broken Hill. Lake Politah, a natural lake, a drinking hole for many forms of fauna – unfortunately including beautiful but feral goats.

Lake Politah

The goats and other fauna make it v difficult to re-establish the woodlands of Black Box Gum and native Cypress Pine that used to surround these parts until, YOU GUESSED IT, whitefellas cut nearly all of ’em down for various reasons. The pine is v slow growing and therefore a v hard wood, resistant to termites, so was a favoured building material. And I think it was the Black Box that was used to power the steam trains.

Despite the signs informing us folk of their fragility, even at the rest area, limbs had clearly been snapped off the pines. Probably for a campfire. Baggghhhh!

Flowering Gum. Yummmm! Lovely delicate fragrance…

Flowering Gum

Eucalyptus Bark Patterns

And more bark patterns, in the form of ‘Tree Graffiti‘ – always a fairly common sight in remote parts but have any of you, like me, noticed a growing trend in this form of graffiti in Melbourne? I have, but mostly tagging as opposed to legible names.

Nice to see that legendary American photographer, Edward Weston, made a trip here to the middle of nowhere and left his mark…and only last year. Amazing! 🙂

What Bird is That? Anyone? Anyone?

And just a little further up the road I rolled into the only ‘town’ to speak of b’w Mildura and BH.

Coombah Roadhouse

Actually, there’s no town at all to speak of. Just ‘June’s Place’, where you can get petrol, make a phone call at the Telstra phone-box (!), use the dunny (but ONLY if ya buy something), order from the ‘a la carte’ menu (‘mm, not totally sure that even I’d risk that, in fact I didn’t – I politely changed my original order to “nothing…I’m not actually feeling that hungry” (hygiene seemed to be slightly, just slightly, lacking).

Sorry, No Petrol

But, if you’re really lucky, you might get to chat to June, herself….

June & Son

I got the distinct feelin’ that ya don’t mess with June. It’s ‘June’s Place‘ after all.

June & Son

Heaps of these bearded fellas and sheilas about…

Feral Goats

It was a fiercely hot day and even the bitumen couldn’t hold it together…

Heat Exhaustion

Melting: Bitumen & Me

The melting bitumen and me. My boots began sticking to the road with each step! Felt like Coyote about to get caught in a creative Roadrunner trap.

On The Road

And then it began – the nightly piritechnico spectaculo! Incredible silent scenes…

Sunset

Sunset Swirls

Storm

Moonrise & Lightning

And then night-proper descended…

Stare-Out Competition.

It’s difficult to drive, photograph and avoid fauna all at the same time! Stubborn Roo! Stubborn Hunter! We eventually came to a compromise and both have stories to tell our mates as a result.

Eventually I rolled into the ‘Welcome to Broken Hill’ roadside pullover where I decided to spend the night, just under that tree over there, past the burn-out skid-marks and burned out rubbish bin enclosure. And just next to the delightfully stark concrete table with its reassuring message…