Day 3&4 - Made it to the Outback!

13/04/11

Up at sparrow next morning and on the road again. today we'll cover 430km and end up parked for the night at Penrose Park at Sliverton 25km out of Broken Hill.

A reasonably uneventful trip broken only by fuel at a place called Emmdale roadhouse (diesel 165.9) 100km from Willcannia.
A quick look at Willcannia - what a sad place... the 2 most well maintained buildings in town are the Police station and the local CES building.  What a shame as there are many beautiful old buildings from late 1800s mostly in ruins... what a depressing place to live!  An example below is the old Catholic Convent - now destitute.

Arrived at Broken Hill first stop 4WD mechanic as vehicle still blowing black smoke - can't get to a mechanic (they all head for the mines as soon as they got their ticket) until Monday morning so will be spending 4 nights in Broken Hill before going further after one night in Silverton.

Arrived at Silverton - what an extra-ordinary place!  A mining town established in late 1800s.   Penrose Park - a nice place to camp but wouldn't want to be here in the wet - this is the creek crossing into the park!
  

The dry creek bed

Silverton has been the site for several Aussie movies including Mad Max2, A Town like Allice & Razorback.

Also many artist studios and other interesing landmarks - the guy ast the Coin Carvery actually cuts out metal from legal tender coins to leave the design only then  mounts them as jewellry settings.  He then tells me all about his trip to Bonneville USA for Speed Week last year and some of the incredible machines he saw there.  He also has his own vehicle which he runs at Lake Gardener off the Nullabor at over 200MPH!

 We visitied the Mad Mox 2 Museum which was really cool.



The original; Mad Max Interceptor



At the Silverton Hotel an unlikely story of a mythical coupling between the Interceptor and one of a couple of local VWs....

One of the suspects



Went to the famous sunset lookout outside Silverton - what a spectaular place - can see for estimated 40km in most diurections cause the surrounding land is so flat.  Met a family there from Geelong VIC who are on their way to Cameron's Corner just for a look! 

From here went back to the Silverton Hotel - had a beer with the same family Brad, Donna, Ellsie (11) and Max (10).  There was a busload there doing the Variety Bash.The hotel itself has great character & has had many different names for various movies and all the signs are mounted on the ceiling. 

14/04/11

Spent the night at Penrose Place at Silverton - up next morning and back to Silverton to visit the museum and old Gaol ((including some interesting treatment in the hospital as below)- a great example of late 1800s memorabilia when the town was at its peak (3000 strong)

 

Followed by a trip to Broken Hill and Silverton water supply

 

. then packed up and back to Broken Hill where we'll spend the next 4 days.  Set up the van including the awning - took us 3 hours to get fully set up!

The Campbells