Silverton is only a short 25km up the road from Broken Hill so we decided to take a ride out there today. Silverton and the surrounds is where many movies were filmed due to the unique landscape for miles around. Among them are Pricilla Queen of the Desert and Mad Max 2. There is a Mad Max Museum in Silverton and Ray was looking forward to a visit there. 

Silverton had a hotel, bakery, gallery and the Mad Max museum – which was closed. It did have public toilets too. 

The hotel has quite a reputation and is apparently the place to be. It just wasn’t the place for us to be at 10:00am in the morning. 

We saw a sign for the Mundi Mundi lookout so we drove on a little further to the find it. We could see the undulating hills and arid landscape, the perfect setting for movies that require an environment like this. Apparently every few months commercials are still shot here. 

We stopped by the bakery for a coffee before heading back to Broken Hill and a visit to the Silver City Mint. We took turns paying the entrance fee of $6 and wandered around the expansive display of mining and historical information, while the other one of us took Henry for a walk to the park opposite. Also on display was an impressive painting by local artist Peter Anderson. Apparently, the painting is the world’s largest acrylic painting on canvas. It’s 12m high, 100m long, took 2 years to paint and used 9 tonnes of paint to finish. Impressive indeed.

Cameras were not allowed in the exhibition, so not being a rule breaker, I obeyed. It wasn’t until I came out that I overheard another couple being told they could take photos of the painting. DoH! 

The mint also sold a range of silver jewelry which was created through the smelting of silver on-site. The variety was incredible. A piece of this would definitely solve two problems.

1. My shopping itch which needed a severe scratch and

2. My impending birthday for which Ray didn’t have a present. 

I selected a bracelet and went outside to join Ray. 

To my dismay he had polished off the whole bar of fudge which he had bought when it was his turn inside the mint. There was nothing else to do but to return and buy some more. Back we went, this time with Henry, as the owner of the mint had invited him in, we selected 2 bars of fudge and a packet of chocolate aniseed rings for good measure, and left again. 

Walking back to the car we spotted a memorial to the women of Broken Hill who have stood by their men during tough industrial times. What a fitting memorial to come across on International Womens Day!