Broken Hill, NSW, Australia, 30th March 2015
Back in Broken Hill, I had an hour or two available so I decided to check out some of the artifacts of the mining past.
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… which is not this image. This is the big chair, overlooking Broken Hill, about six to eight feet high. The chain around it is because someone fell off it and sued the Council.
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As a mining centre, rail was very important to Broken Hill. There must be something of a repair facility below because there are lots of wheels and axles staked by the tracks.
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This is the mining deaths memorial, recording the names of over 700 workers. Broken Hill was a great centre of the labour movement and there were severe disputes in 1892, 1909 and 1919.
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Slag heap and the town beyond.
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Coming back down from the hill above Broken Hill, this is an old mine no longer in operation.
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Taken over the fence of a museum, which was not open at the time.
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This is a working mine, Thompson Shaft.
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Nearby, this is Browne Shaft, an old mine no longer in operation. It operated from 1886 to 1928 and 1946 to 1972. There was a very severe fire 550 feet down in 1906.
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I went up to the Browne Shaft Mine and from there saw the North Shaft Mine, which operated from 1905 to 1993.
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Turning around, these great steel vats are at the Browne Shaft Mine and they are visibly sitting on top of the lead lode. The lead, zinc and silver lodes rose almost vertically through the ground and appeared above it.
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I then became fascinated by the textures and pattern on the surface of the vats….
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Broken Hill doesn’t seem to have changed much around the mines since 2003 when I was last passing through, except for that chair! Love the textures and patterns they are superb.
Thanks very much Lee. They do have a serious problem with water supply though which might threaten the viability of the town.
Water, the stuff of life. I hadn’t heard it was quite that bad and wonder how many other outback towns are heading that way.
Especially ones that rely on bores may have a problem because bore water is ancient and finite.
I especially liked the metal close-ups.
Yes, likewise. I was very pleased when I found them.
The mine shaft that you did not record the name is Thompson Shaft, part of the British Mine., last worked by North Broken Hill in the 1950’s. I worked at the South Mine MMM as ‘Technical Assistant to the Underground Manager’ and part of my duties was ventilation officer. I could access Thompsons Shaft from Browne Shaft on about the 600? ft level and climbed down to the 800? foot level in the mid 1970’s.. The shaft was in remarkably good condition and was full of water below the 800 foot level. I believe that the shaft was 1200 feet deep. It was a 3 compartment shaft with 2 cage compartments and a service compartment which contained the ladderway, pipes and electrical and comms cables.
Browne Shaft lowest level was at 1600 foot. It was similar to Thompson Shaft with 3 compartments. The main haulage level was the 1480 foot which connected all the way to Number 7 shaft adjacent to Bonanza Street. Number 7 Shaft was 2400 feet deep and contained the skips which hauled the ore to the surface.
There was another shaft referred to as King Shaft between Browne and Thompson which had some residual ore, however it was insufficient to warrant the difficulty of rehabilitating the section.
I hope that you find this interesting.
Fascinating! Thanks very much Angus! That must have been an amazing job.