Broken Hill

I'm really starting to feel the push for excessive blogging. Hence the six? posts in last two days. I shall be on the road for six months, my posting shall become sparse, and by golly, there is so much I've yet to talk about. Hopefully, I will actually be having Amazingly Awesome Adventures with much Assonance in Australia. Sadly, my blog has been basically boring bashings of the blokes and their babble in Broken Hill, much more alliterative than assonant. I realized that through all this, I've not even taken one moment to talk about the town that I've been calling home for past three and a half months. So, without much wasting of the written words that this White can whittle out of his weary, worldly head (Ah, Assonance Aaron, assonance Alright!), here is a little bit about Broken Hill.

Broken Hill is located on the western end of the state of New South Wales. Even though Sydney is the capital of the state, Adelaide in Southern Australia is the nearest city. Here is a map of its approximate location (as done by me on paint.)

So basically, it is in the middle of the outback. It is a small desert town of about 20,000 people. It is quite isolated, the nearest city of any substantial size is Midura, Victoria about 2.5 hours away. It is basically at the outskirts of where people can really survive in the middle of the country.

It was founded in the 1880's by the local celebrity, Charles Rasp. He found some silver deposits and decided to begin a large mining operation. From this, Broken Hill is often called the "Silver City". Despite its 20,000 person population, its mining companies is one biggest money makers in the whole country and produces a lot of zinc, lead, and silver among others. It also draws many workers from around the world. Even Herbert Hoover worked on the Broken Hill mine. The rest of the local economy is driven by tourism. Broken Hill oddly enough is a huge draw to both domestic and foreign travelers. It is basically a great way to see the outback without going bush. Between the big picture, the sculptures, mining museums, Silverton, and many local national parks, there is plenty for visitors to see for a few days.

The people here are very friendly as expected from rural towns. The town was famous for having a pub at every corner and really, that is not far from the truth. The scary part is, there are significantly less pubs here than the used to be. I enjoy the town a lot. People love to make fun of it, but I could see myself living here for a while (a year would probably be the max).