New South Wales - Australia 2004 - page 222

VISITOR INFORMATION The Broken Hill Visitors Information Cen-
tre, at Blende and Bromide streets, Broken Hill, NSW 2880 ( & 08/8087 6077;
fax [phone]; www.murrayoutback.org.au), is open daily from 8:30am to
5pm. The National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) office is at 183 Argent
St. ( & 08/8088 5933 ), and the Royal Automobile Association of South Aus-
tralia, which offers reciprocal services to other national and international auto-
club members, is at 261 Argent St. ( & 08/8088 4999 ).
Note: The area code in Broken Hill is 08, the same as the South Australia
code, not 02, the New South Wales code.
GETTING AROUND Silver City Tours, 380 Argent St. ( & 08/8087
3144 ), conducts tours of the city and surrounding Outback. City tours take
around 4 hours and cost A$45 (US$26) for adults and A$20 (US$13) for chil-
dren. They also offer a range of other tours of the area.
Broken Hill Corner Country Adventure Tours ( & 08/8087 5142; www.
cornercountryadventure.com.au), operates several small group tours into the
desert from Broken Hill, staying in rural properties and bush pubs. The regular
4-day/3-night Corner Country Tour takes in a sheep station, White Cliffs,
Mootwingee, and the red-sand Sturt National Park. It costs A$850 (US$552)
all-inclusive. Other offerings include a 5-day trip to the Flinders Ranges and
Lake Eyre—usually a vast dry bowl of clay, which sometimes floods—for
A$1,235 (US$803); and an 8-day Birdsville and Outback tour, May through
October, stopping off at the very impressive red sand dunes on the edge of the
Simpson Desert, as well as the one-camel bush towns of Birdsville, Marree, and
Innamincka in South Australia. This costs A$1,790 (US$1,163).
Another recommended small group tour operator, Goanna Safari ( & 08/
8087 6057; www.goanna-safari.com.au), offers personalized tours of the Out-
back from Broken Hill, and a range of regular camping (with good camp beds
and cooking fires) or accommodated tours. Among them is a 3-day/2-night trip
to Mootwingee, White Cliffs, and Menidee Lakes, where giant dams on the Dar-
ling River bristle with the half-drowned skeletons of gum trees and flutter with
numerous species of wading birds, pelicans, and ducks. This trip costs A$656
(US$426) camping and A$694 (US$450) accommodated. Also on the agenda is
a 3-day trip to Minindee, Kinchega National Park, and Lake Mungo, a dry lake
famous for the 45,000-year-old skeletons and artifacts discovered in it and for
huge sand dunes and shimmering white cliffs known as the Walls of China. This
costs A$582 (US$378) camping and A$694 (US$452) accommodated.
Hertz ( & 08/8087 2719; fax [phone]) rents four-wheel-drive vehicles
suitable for exploring the area.
EXPLORING THE TOWN: GALLERIES, A MINE TOUR &
THE WORLD'S LARGEST SCHOOLROOM
With the largest regional public gallery in New South Wales and 27 private gal-
leries, Broken Hill has more places per capita to see art than anywhere else in
Australia. The Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, Chloride Street, between
Blende and Beryl streets ( & 08/8088 5491 ), houses an extensive collection of
Australian colonial and Impressionist works. Look for the Silver Tree, a sculpture
created out of the pure silver mined from beneath Broken Hill. This is also a
good place to see works by the “Brushmen of the Bush,” a well-known group of
artists, including Pro Hart, Jack Absalom, Eric Minchin, and Hugh Schultz,
who spend many days sitting around campfires in the bush trying to capture its
essence in paint. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 10am to