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1 day ago
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My parents moved to Australia from Italy in the 1950s but they met here. I was born in Broken Hill, in far west New South Wales, on country that’s traditionally owned by the Wilyakali people. I left as a teenager but I came back in 2009 when my sister and I bought the Palace hotel (made famous in the 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert). We started the Broken Heel festival in 2015 as a tribute to the film and last year it sadly hung up its heels.
Food
For breakfast, the Silly Goat is run by a family that’s passionate about food and coffee. They make a lot from scratch and have healthy wholefood alternatives. A great hot breakfast can be found at the Astra, also on the main street (Argent).
For dinner, I’d recommend the Old Saltbush. Chef Lee Cecchin serves a great saltbush lamb as well as kangaroo and emu meat. She makes excellent sauces using bush foods and it’s a cosy dining room.
Green spaces
Early mining in Broken Hill decimated what few trees we had. It caused sand and dust problems so in the early 1900s they planted a green belt. You can drive to the edge of town anywhere and, where the streets end, is the regeneration area. It’s red dirt and dense, arid scrub – mainly saltbush and mallee – but you can lose yourself in it, especially in wildflower season (September and October).
If you park at the bottom of the Living Desert and Sculptures Symposium, a couple of bushwalks go to some amazing rocky outcrops with extensive views. Browne’s mine shaft overlooks the city and has lots of mining infrastructure and remnants. Imperial Lakes is an original lake area recently handed back to the local landcare group. They’re creating some gorgeous walks and there’s amazing bird life. The Broken Heel festival is planting a rainbow garden and there will be a reptile park too. Currently, it’s member access only ($22 annually).
We have a bigger scale in the outback so the vast Menindee Lakes system, about 100km away, is a place we go. There’s free camping on the southern shoreline at Lake Pamamaroo. The Baaka (Darling River) has beautiful river red gums, heaps of wildlife and camping in Kinchega national park.
Nightlife
In a city, strangers probably won’t talk to you on a night out. Broken Hill is the opposite; it’s very friendly! Locals often notice if there’s a new face and, chances are, someone will spark up a chat. Plenty of times I’ve seen tourists make friends at the bar and get their next day planned. Or a local will say “I’ll take you fishing” or offer to show them some secret spot.
Tydvil hotel has opened Broken Hill Distillery next door and its gin has won global awards. You can try a selection in the hotel’s beautiful beer garden. I’d recommend Spirit of the Outback infused with redgum honey and quandong.
The Palace books lots of touring musos who will stop en route to Adelaide or Mundi Mundi Bash. Sometimes we get impromptu performances, and then we’ve got our local artists and bands. We hold Australia’s only year-round game of two-up (coin flip game with 50/50 betting odds) every Friday night. It’s a very jovial night. Even if you just watch, it’s quite the spectacle and a cacophony of voices.
Inspiration
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, mine owners displayed their wealth by investing in art. Broken Hill regional art gallery has a phenomenal collection donated by people who made their fortune here. There’s always been fantastic Indigenous art by a mix of local and area mob. The Maari Ma Indigenous art awards is fantastic and we also have the lucrative Pro Hart Outback art prize, which gets a massive national intake.
We’re treated to a lot of contemporary art. Broken Hill has a big mix (from video to sculpture, textiles, sound and dance) of out-of-town artists on residencies or painting expeditions. The light is amazing out here. People come to immerse in the landscape or nature or isolation and get inspired by it. I love it because new people are always keen for fun stuff like “let’s have a dinner party in a creek bed” or “let’s catch the flaming sunrise at a lookout”.
A new gallery called Slag Heap Projects on Oxide Street is presenting innovative work. The scene is really accessible; at openings, you get to chat to people involved in all sorts of creative practices.
Garage sales are great in Broken Hill and happen most weekends. You don’t have to drive far to get to garages all over town. Because we’re so isolated, some absolute gems are stuck in people’s sheds that never got shipped away.
Neighbourhoods
South Broken Hill is on the other side of the slag heap. It’s really revving up with an energised community group revitalising the main street. The original 1950s Bells Milk Bar is still doing spiders and sodas. Jonnie Loves Noreen is a fantastic vintage store that stocks gorgeous restored furniture too.
Pepe’s Milkbar is a traditional milk bar that’s open from 4am to service the truckie trade. It stocks your hot takeaway bog-standards as well as corner store classics like bags of lollies. They have nice salads and sushi too. These are all within about 50 metres of each other and across the road is a great kids’ park, Patton Street Park, with barbecues.
Accommodation
Penrose Park at Silverton (a 25-minute drive west) is great value. It has campsites (unpowered from $20 a night; powered from $35), cabins (from $110 a night) and a fully equipped cottage (from $160 a night). There’s a tennis court in the campground and it’s a short walk to the famous Silverton hotel, the Mad Max 2 museum and Mundi Mundi lookout.
We’ve renovated several rooms at the Palace with wild wallpaper and themes based on the Priscilla movie. We’ve redone the original Priscilla suite (from $265 a night) and added Bernadette’s boudoir (the character played by Terence Stamp; from $245 a night).
