Remarkably we found that Silverton had not changed much if at all since we were last here in 1993. It’s still quirky, still quaint, still a lot crazy. But we love it and it was great to be there again.

We visited Silverton on 19 April 2021.

Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia

Getting there

Broken Hill > Silverton ~ 25kms

It’s all bitumen, but a bumpy old road. There are extensive road works going on to widen the road, so we were held up for a good while.

History

The earliest human settlers in the area are thought to be the Wiljakali Aborigines, although this was probably only intermittent due to lack of permanent water sources. To read more on the history of these communities, click here

Pastoralists first began settling the area in the 1850s, with the main trade route to the area along the Darling River. To read about the European history of the area, click here

Mundi Mundi

We decided to go out to the Mundi Mundi lookout before looking around town. Half way there we came across the friendly donkeys – 5 or 6 of them. They came up to the car clearly looking for food. Great to say hello to the locals. They are obviously used to tourists as they came right up to the car and stuck their noses in. Des got to pat one. Sadly, one was blind in one eye. Great also to see the Silverton Wind Farm turning constantly in the background.

We had been to the lookout before but it is still quite spectacular. From this lookout, just next to the road, we could see the Mundi Mundi Plains stretched out before us for hundreds of kilometres – some 400km to the Flinders Ranges. They say that the view is so clear you can even see the curvature of the earth. The last picture is a pano. It’s true. You can see a slight curve.

Silverton

Back at Silverton, we parked in the main street and walked around the large square where the heritage buildings are. Next to us was the Council Chambers (1886) and then the Courthouse.

First up along the side street was the School built in 1884 as a timber and iron structure, and having 2 teaches and 140 children. The stone version came in 1888. It was closed. You wonder how in the world 2 teaches managed 140 kids… would drive you nuts!!!

The Catholic church at the top of the hill as built in 1886, and has had significant restoration in recent years by its current owners. In the rear garden we were very delighted to see a small patch of our favourite flower – Sturts Desert Pea.

Across the road from that is the first of many VW beetles in various state of disrepair and paint. A little further on is an old jeep covered in bottle tops.

There are a few art galleries along the top stretch. We visited the larger one and bought a few trinkets. Out front was an original Dunny with a gloriously painted door, and an old Holden ute.

In the middle is another abandoned church, crying out for restoration. Near that is another whacky gallery featuring bikes of all manner and another VW, very colourful indeed.

We moved down to the Hotel and there we saw a number of vintage cars that were staying at our van park – a vintage car club. My favourites were the stunning Valiant and the Morris convertible. This mob (25 vintage cars) was from Dubbo. Sadly, a 1961 Mini blew a head gasket a few miles out of Broken Hill. The owner managed to actually find a head gasket in Broken Hill, but with no way to repair it, had it trucked home and cadged a lift from his mates.

Along the main street we came to the original Post Office (1883), now a gallery, and the Kidmans Butchers.

A few of the other buildings.

We went through the Jail and Courthouse (1889), now a museum. This contains the usual mass of information – I love reading the old newspapers. A lot of old household items – including the exact electrolux vacuum cleaner that my mother bought in 1956. Apparently this one still works better than my mums did (hers used to blow the dust out I’m sure).

Next was the Jail. The exercise yard was very small the the toilets rather public.

We then went up to the Mad Max 2 museum – I had forgotten how crazy this was. We can’t take photos inside the main building but got these and more in the outside area. These are also covered in the video. Now I’ve seen the museum, I guess I’d better get around to watching Mad Max. I did love the “feral kid” The museum was really well done.