Oz Trip - Day 8

Day 8 – 9/5/2012 – Sightseeing Day

It ended up being a very warm night and you could feel that it was going to be a warm day. I think the temperature only went down to about 15 deg over night. A nice pleasant night.

Now that the jobs were out of the way, It was time to do a bit of sightseeing. On the way back into Broken Hill we stopped in to pick up the fixed Stone Stomper. The guy had done a great job at fixing it and reinforcing it.

Next stop was the Miners Memorial and the Big Bench at the top of the dirt hill in the centre of town. It had great views out over Broken Hill and the surrounding areas.

Memorial to the Miners who have lost their lives in Broken Hill Mines

The Big Bench

Lookout over Broken Hill

Next stop was the Living Desert Sculptures. The cost was $10 per vehicle to access the site. We thought it was a bit steep for what it was. We also thought that a more accurate description would have been etchings rather than sculptures. There were only a few there that we liked.

The views back onto Broken Hill also weren't too bad.

Looking back towards Broken Hill

It was then back to Penrose Park to the camper for some lunch. We had to eat inside today due to the flies. There was so many of them it was annoying. After lunch we headed of to investigate Silverton a bit more. As we jumped into the Pajero, it said that the outside temperature was 37deg!!!!

Silverton was the place where they shot Mad Max II, Razorback and a few other Australian movies. Wildman, this one is for you. Here is a photo of the Mad Max Interceptor.  It didn't look like it had been cranked over for a few years.

Interceptor from Mad Max

We had a bit of a walk around to look at all of the old stone buildings and then dropped into the Silverton pub for a couple of beers while taking in all of the photos of the movies that had been made in the town and featured the Pub.

Silverton Pub

Penrose Park where we were camping is actually a really old recreation area. It is about 70 years old. It use to be very popular with the people from Broken Hill to come and stay here. There are about 6 tennis courts scatted throughout the grounds (most are overgrown), a football oval and an athletics oval. In amongst all of this there is also a small zoo, BBQ's, toilet blocks, old play ground equipment and recently there has been some cabins added and a new camp kitchen is in the process of being constructed.

It has deteriorated over the years but the current caretakers and trustee are in the process of trying to get it re-established. It was a bit of a strange feeling staying here. It felt like you were camping in an old ghost town. The caretakers said that they are maintaining some areas, ie getting the grass to grow etc but other areas they are just letting go and not touching. This was deliberate because they get people that want to camp in basically the “untouched” areas that are basically desert. You could camp anywhere you wanted in the park.  It was about 70 acres so it was pretty easy to find a nice quiet spot to yourself.  Even though it was old, it was a nice place and would easily stay here again. It was just so quite at night it was fantastic.

Our Penrose Park Camp Site

Old playground equipment

Road leading to the sports oval

Football oval