Through 07-Apr: Socceroos and Broken Hill

Wednesday we went out to Olympic Park to watch the Australian soccer team play a World Cup qualifying match against Uzbekistan. The Socceroos, as they are known (seriously) would for all intents and purposes clinch a spot in South Africa in 2010 with a win so people were pretty geared up for the game. It was a good one, the crowd was rowdy and alive and after a scoreless first half, Australia scored two goals midway through the second half and won two-nil. The experience has officially made me a Socceroos fan (I mean come on, with a name like that how can you not be a fan??)



Saturday morning we flew to Broken Hill. Broken Hill is all the way west in NSW right near the border with South Australia and it is definitely what you would call the outback. The town itself has about 20,000 people but the moment you drive past town, the roads turn to red dirt and you feel like you are literally in the middle of nowhere (which is kind of true). Broken Hill became a town back in the day when large mineral deposits, primarily silver, were discovered...not sure there is much other reason the town would have existed!


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First we went to the Royal Flying Doctor Service base and museum. The RFDS flies doctors to the middle of nowhere outback from their bases when people who live out there get sick or injured. Not much other way to treat people who live hundreds of miles from a town. After getting into town and walking around a bit, we drove out to the "Sculpture Symposium" about 15km out of town. It's a great spot to watch the sunset as its up on a hill with views of the outback in all directions and as the sun sets, the colors of the sculptures change.




Next morning we drove out to Silverton, which is an essentially abandoned mining town about 25km from Broken Hill. There are some old buildings from the mining boom days and you kind of feel like you've just traveled into the 19th century. After seeing Silverton we went to the Daydream mine nearby where you can take a tour that goes down into the silver mines that used to be so active and productive a hundred or so years ago. It was a pretty fascinating tour and somewhat shocking to try and imagine working down there in such horrible conditions.




We headed back to Broken Hill and went to a few of the art galleries in town (they have a relatively large art scene) before heading up to the top of the Broken Hill mine that kind of towers over the town. We saw the Miners Memorial which is for all of the miners who have died in the area, and then stayed and watched the sunset and had dinner overlooking town. Up early the next morning for our flight back to Sydney to conclude our quick trip into the outback.



Friday is the beginning of Michelle's Easter break so we'll be heading up to the Great barrier reef to do some diving and sailing so stay tuned for that...