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 but I didn’t record its name.

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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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