20 September 2012 - Silverland Caravan Park, Broken Hill, NSW

We have spent this, our last full day in Broken Hill, enjoying a somewhat fragmented day, doing bits of this and bits of that. The first bit had not been put on the list but was placed on the top soon after Chris found one of the back tyres on the land cruiser as flat as a pancake. I was happy enough to assist Chris with the removal of the rogue, however was even happier when Geoff came across the park and offered his services while we were checking in the manual for the correct place for the jack. I chatted with his wife, Robyn, who came over to supervise, about Silverton where they were headed for the day. They also shared a story about having had a flatty themselves on the Oonandatta Track on their caravan, after having seen no one for hours. By nothing short of a miracle, a couple of truckies appeared out of nowhere to assist which was just as well; the change of the tyre eventually took a combination of three jacks. I was glad that our flatty had occurred in the convenience of the camping ground.

We had business at the post office, the bank and the barber, had we been able to find one. Chris is desperately in need of a haircut and not keen to repeat his last experience with a female hairdresser who is likely to snip snip away for hours and still leave a mess. I have offered to attend to the grooming myself and he may well have to relent. Time will tell.

Pro Hart's  Broken Hill

We headed for the Pro Hart Gallery which Chris reminded me that he had visited with his parents from England about thirty years ago. On arrival at the gallery however, he found nothing familiar but so much better that the tin shed where he recalled meeting the artist himself working at his easel.

Pro Hart is well known here in Australia, mainly for his Naive style depictions of life in the outback. There is much more to his art than that however I have to admit to loving that the best. I, in my very uneducated manner, would suggest that the likes of John Murray of Lightning Ridge, Howard Steer whose work we have seen in various studios about the country and Justin Cowley’s whose work we saw yesterday at Silverton were all hugely influenced by this ex-miner from Broken Hill. His work has been collected by innumerable celebrities across the globe, but is less likely to be seen in the traditional galleries of the nation. Kevin “Pro” Hart produced a prolific number of works, suggested to be about 100,000, earned more than a comfortable living from his efforts, was not highly educated and dared to take part in commercial activities such as carpet advertisements on television. He was a passionate body builder, amateur musician, talented pistol shooter, collector of cars and motorbikes, of valuable art ; none of these pastimes fitting neatly with normally celebrated artists, or at least those whose work hang in the celebrated galleries of the world. He died just short of his seventy eighth birthday in 2006 but his legacy lives on, in this excellent gallery here in Broken Hill and his five children who have all gone on to make names in one form of art or another in their own right.

Pro Hart's sculpture in the Outdoor Sculpture garden

Our next port of call was to the gallery of Julie Hart, Pro’s youngest daughter, where we could see the influence of her father’s training and guidance of whatever genetic talent was inherited.

As Broken Hill’s mineral resources have become more difficult to extract from the earth, the city has sought other means to promote itself and provide for its future. Tourism is alive and well not just because of the fascinating history of the place but for the wealth of artists who have made the city their home. We have only touched on some of the galleries but could have visited many more.

We drove about the city still fascinated by the street names; Argent, Beryl, Boron, Bromide, Calcite, Cobalt, and so on; all names of minerals. We drove over to South Broken Hill to see what we could see and found ourselves outside the old power station now reinvented as a state-of-the-art movie studio. I have already made mention of the number of films that have used the region for location shots. Given that there is unlikely to be too much urban sprawl about here for a century or so, this seems to be an ideal place to serve as background for country scenes.

Some of Broken Hill's wasteland surrounds

Back at camp, we learned that Ralph and Pam are heading up to Cameron’s Corner the day after tomorrow, leaving their caravan here in the park. The border junction of South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland, named Cameron’s Corner is 470 kilometres away from here, up a mostly gravel road. They intend to take their tent however Pam is doing some research on cabin and hotel accommodation. Ralph admits to being eighty one years old  and Pam is much younger, but still ten years older than I. I do not envy them their proposed trip but then is it so very different to ours up to the tip of Cape York? Just to say they were there?

We also learned a little more about the Country Music Festival that is on at the end of this month in Mildura and Wentworth which we will most likely gate crash. Camping space will be at a premium and Pam gave us some valuable tips on where we might find a spot to park our wheels; they with Melody and Doug have pre-booked a space in a caravan park.  I can foresee a week of heavy entertainment accompanied by heavy eating and drinking. Just when we were doing so well with our healthy living!

Chris popped out again to pick up the repaired tyre and we are now all set up and ready to move south east tomorrow morning, on a side trip to the Menindee Lakes.