The large hill staring down over Broken Hill is known
as the Line of Lode and standing atop the line of lode is the Miner's Memorial which honours the
people who have died working to make Broken Hill what it is today.
With over 700 people memorialised at the
site it is a stark reminder of the fact that more people have died working the
mine's in Broken Hill than Australian soldiers died in the Vietnam War. Master
John Vaughan, who died at the age of 14 in the late 1800's, is the youngest
person who has died on a Broken Hill mine site. Along with the date of death
and age of each person memorialised is a brief description of how they were
killed. This includes phrases such as 'run over by wagon', 'premature
explosion', 'drowned in a well', 'fell off scaffolding' and 'crushed by
boiler'. The memorial serves to personalise the tragic loss mine employee's
families sometimes suffered because of their line of work and honours the
memory of those that have died.
Upon this same hill is a large park bench. The designer of this bench wanted adults to experience what a child feels as they sit here. Bob looks quite small!!
Sturt Park has a memorial to the musicians from the Titanic,
so inspired by curiousity we drove to find this particular park.
Along with this memorial which was the broken column, indicating "life cut short" surrounded by a rose garden, we found this wonderful fig tree which
also merits recognition.
Bob asked one
of the council employees about it and he confirmed it had come from South
Africa and was over 130 years old.
During the Christmas period fairy lights are illuminated, and I imagine
it would be a remarkable sight.
During the opening of an art show back in the 1990’s a
Gosford based sculptor, Lawrence Beck proposed to the Mayor of Broken Hill that
sculptures would enhance the city. At the same time the Council was developing
a reserve on the outskirts of the city, and today the two sit side by side.
This area is known as The Broken Hill Sculptures and Living
Desert Sanctuary and is about 10km from the city.
Sculptors from many countries spent time working on
sandstone brought in from near Wilcannia and today, twelve of these sculptures
dominate the hill. We certainly needed
to read the interpretive boards accompanying each one as some were quite abstract,
and we decided we didn’t need to transport any of them home to grace our own
back garden.
A good hilly climb followed as we enjoyed the culture walk
trail. Some of the features were this
lovely Sturt Desert Pea bush, a group of simulated Aboriginal shelters,
story
poles carved from red river gum by Aboriginal students
and clay models of
prospectors near a simulated mine.
We attended the Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow and found
ourselves laughing along with the audience at some of the comedians. They all
brought their own style and were diverse in their stand-up
content. Thankyou radio 999 ABC Broken
Hill for the complimentary tickets!!
