Friday, September 27, 2013

Broken Hill

The camping in and around Broken Hill looked cramped, dusty and tired, so we decided to head for a bit of luxury and rented a deluxe room in the Outback Lodge Motel for two nights. We really wanted to see the artwork and galleries, for which Broken Hill is famous.

The Post Office, central Broken Hill.
Memorial to lost miners, as seen from the centre of town.

Broken Hill Court House, a very dignified building.

We were unaware that Broken Hill runs on South Australian time, so we kept on being half an hour early to everything! The Regional Gallery wasn't open when we arrived so we took a trip to nearby, Silverton.

Silverton, was one of the first silver mines in Australia, but now most of the old buildings have either disappeared or fallen into disrepair.

An interesting town, that boasts the makings of makings movies there than any other town in Australia; Mad Max, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, A Town Like Alice, just to name a few. The ABC was in the town whilst we were there, making a mini-series called The Code.

We visited the local galleries, but found little really original artistics works that captured the vastness, the fragility and beauty of this desert region.

We took the turn off to visit the Sculpture Consortium in the desert as well as the Living Desert flora and fauna sanctuary. The colours are not captured by camera. They appear dull and dreary. The reality is that smoky grey bushes contrast dramatically with red dirt and cobalt blue skies.

We LOVED the sculptures. They all spoke about the land and the people who made them. Sculpters from all around the world were commissioned to create them, so each sculpture reflects the artists' emotional responses to the desert and the artists' strong attachments to their homelands.

The ancient rocks leading up to the top of the hill had their own naturally formed carving, formed by heat and wind as seen below.

Close by we spotted this desert dragon.

A visit to the Pro Hart Gallery was interesting. The gallery contained examples of Pro's work from the 1970's through to the 2000's, including the dragon he painted on the carpet for that ad.

The Broken Hill Regional Gallery had a wonderful collection of Australian art.

 

1 comment: