Broken Hill is a city in the far west region of outback New South Wales, Australia. An inland mining city, it is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is 315 m (1,033 ft) above sea level, with a cold semi-arid climate, and an average rainfall of 265 mm (10.4 in). The closest major city is Mildura, 300 km (190 mi) to the south and the nearest state capital city is Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, which is more than 500 km (310 mi) to the southwest and linked via route A32, the Barrier Highway.
The town lies on the traditional lands of the Wilyakali people. It became prominent in Australia's mining, industrial relations, and economic history after the discovery of silver-lead-zinc ore in the Broken Hill ore deposit, in an ore body known as the Line of Lode. This led to the opening of several mines and established Broken Hill's recognition as a prosperous mining town well into the 1990s. Despite experiencing a slowing economic situation in the late 1990s and 2000s, Broken Hill itself was listed on the National Heritage List in 2015 and remains Australia's longest-running mining town. The Line of Lode Reserve, comprising a visitor centre and restaurant, is atop a man-made hill in the centre of the city.
Broken Hill, historically considered one of Australia's boomtowns, has been referred to as "The Silver City", and less commonly as the "Oasis of the West", and the "Capital of the Outback". Although over 1,100 km (680 mi) west of Sydney and surrounded by desert, the town has prominent park and garden displays and offers a number of attractions, such as the Living Desert Sculptures. The town has a high potential for solar power, given its extensive daylight hours of sunshine.
Time zone
Unlike the rest of New South Wales, Broken Hill (and the surrounding region) observes Australian Central Standard Time (UTC+9:30), the same time zone used in nearby South Australia. This is because at the time the Australian dominions adopted standard time, Broken Hill's only direct rail link was with Adelaide, not Sydney. Similarly, Broken Hill is regarded as part of South Australia for the purposes of postal parcel rates and telephone charges. Broken Hill also used to be a break-of-gauge station where the state railway systems of South Australia and New South Wales met.
Town name
Broken Hill is Australia's longest-lived mining city. In 1844, the explorer Charles Sturt saw and named the Barrier Range, and at the time referred to a "Broken Hill" in his diary. Silver ore was later discovered on this broken hill in 1883 by boundary rider Charles Rasp. The broken hill that gave its name to Broken Hill actually consisted of a number of hills that appeared to have a break in them. This broken hill no longer exists, having been mined away.
The area was originally known as Willyama.
Geology
Broken Hill's massive orebody, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, has proved to be among the world's largest silver–lead–zinc mineral deposits. The orebody is shaped like a boomerang plunging into the earth at its ends and outcropping in the centre. The protruding tip of the orebody stood out as a jagged rocky ridge amongst undulating plain country on either side. This was known as the Broken Hill by early pastoralists. Miners called the ore body the Line of Lode. A unique mineral recently identified from Broken Hill has been named Nyholmite after Ron Nyholm (1917–1971). Lead with the isotope signature of the Broken Hill deposits has been found across the entire continent of Antarctica in ice cores dating back to the late nineteenth century.
History
The earliest human settlers in the area around Broken Hill are thought to have been the Wilyakali, a group of Aboriginal Australian people, once thought to have lived only intermittently in the area because of the lack of permanent water sources.
The first British to enter the area was the 1844 expedition led by soldier and explorer Charles Sturt. He was guided there along Stephens Creek by an Indigenous teenager from Menindee called Topar. Sturt saw and named the Barrier Range while searching for an inland sea; so naming it because it blocked his journey north.
Pastoralists first began settling the area in the 1850s, and the main trade route to the area was along the Darling River.
Broken Hill was founded in 1883 by boundary rider Charles Rasp, who patrolled the Mount Gipps fences. In 1883, he discovered what he thought was tin, but the samples proved to be silver and lead. The orebody they came from proved to be the largest and richest of its kind in the world and comparable to contemporary mining in Pulacayo, Bolivia. Rasp and six associates founded the Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP), later BHP Billiton, and now BHP again, in 1885 as the Syndicate of Seven. By 1915, BHP had realised that its ore reserves were limited and began to diversify into steel production. Mining at the BHP mines at Broken Hill ceased 28 February 1939. BHP was not the only mining operation at Broken Hill though, and mining continued at the southern and northern ends of the Line of Lode. In the early 20th century, Broken Hill was a centre of mining innovation resulting in a viable froth flotation process. Currently the southern and northern operations are run by Perilya Limited, who plan to open further mines along the Line of Lode.
In 1892 Broken Hill Gaol was built, designed by the Colonial Architect, James Barnet, who also designed the Sydney Museum, among others. Its construction cost £15,000, and was carried out by Dobbee and Son. It opened on 8 November 1892 as a 90-bed facility with five prison wardens and initially holding two female and 19 male prisoners.
The Battle of Broken Hill took place on New Year's Day 1915 when two Afghan men, pushing an ice-cream cart, hoisted a Turkish Flag and fired upon a trainload of people who were headed to a New Years Day picnic. Since Australia was at war at the time with the Ottoman Empire, the men were first thought to be Turkish, but were later identified as being from the British colony of India (modern day Pakistan). They killed four and wounded six, before they were killed by a group of policemen and soldiers. The battle witnessed one of the first shots on Australian soil during World War I.
In 1918, the Italian Ambassador to Australia, Emilio Eles, with the help of the Australian police and the army, organised the roundup of Italian deserters working there as miners, to be forcibly sent back to Italy to fight in the war.
Broken Hill is also known for its input into the formation of the labour movement in Australia, and has a rich trade union history. Some of the most bitter industrial disputes have been fought in Broken Hill in 1892, 1909, and 1919. The last of these led to the formation in 1923 of the Barrier Industrial Council, a group of 18 trade unions, which became one of the most influential organisations in the politics of the city. Like many "outback" towns, Broken Hill was built on precious metals, having once had the world's richest deposits of lead, zinc and silver. Although now depleted somewhat, mining still yields around two million tonnes annually. Some mine tours are available. Sheep farming is now one of the principal industries in the area and there are considerably more sheep than people – almost 2 million Merino sheep.
On 10 January 2007, the Broken Hill City Council was dismissed by the NSW Minister for Local Government following a public inquiry.
Parts of the town received record rainfall totals (records began in 1884) when a total exceeding 140 mm (5.5 in) fell in a 24-hour period on 16 March 2022. The floods that followed this resulted in the death of one man; the main street resembled a river.
Heritage listings
Broken Hill has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
227 Argent Street: Palace Hotel
258–260 Argent Street: Broken Hill Post Office
404–408 Argent Street: Walter Sully Emporium
Broken Hill railway: Broken Hill railway station
Buck Street: Broken Hill Mosque
Cobalt Street: Wesley Uniting Church
160 Crystal Street: Seppelts Warehouse
East of corner of Gaffney and Oxide Streets, Proprietary Square: First BHP Offices Chimney Ruin
Hynes Street: 1915 Picnic Train Attack and White Rocks Reserve.
232 Lane Street: "The Old Convent" St Joseph's Convent
34 Sulphide Street: Broken Hill Trades Hall
165 Wolfram Street: Broken Hill Synagogue
Unnamed road, 20 km (12 mi) out: Day Dream Smelter
Piper Street: Central Mine Manager's Residence
Town listings
The town was listed in 2001 as a National Engineering Landmark by Engineers Australia as part of its Engineering Heritage Recognition Program.
In 2015, Broken Hill became the first city in Australia to be included on the National Heritage List.
Governance
Broken Hill lies in the state electoral district of Barwon and the federal government Division of Parkes
Infrastructure
Electric power
By the 1920s, most of the nine mines on the Line of Lode had their own steam-powered electrical generators to power the surface and underground workings. As Broken Hill is in a desert with little water and virtually no fuel, steam generation was an expensive option. In 1927 a plan for a central power-generating facility was proposed by F.J. Mars, consulting electrical engineer with the Central Mine. The proposed powerhouse would provide electricity and compressed air.
The mines agreed and formed Western New South Wales Electric Power Pty Ltd to construct and operate the plant. The Sulzer diesel-powered plant was completed in 1931. This was one of the earliest instances of the use of diesel power generation in Australia. The plant was enlarged in 1950 to cope with increased demand from the North Mine. At the same time, a new power station run by the Southern Power Corporation (owned by Consolidated Zinc) was erected near the New Broken Hill Consolidated Mine to provide power to the southern end of the Line of Lode. Both stations were connected to a common grid that serviced the mines on the Line of Lode.
A high-voltage direct current back-to-back station with a maximum transmission rate of 40 megawatts was built at Broken Hill in 1986, to draw from the national grid. It consisted of two static inverters working with a voltage of 8.33 kV. As of 2022, the line was 220 kV, running 260 km (160 mi) from Buronga, with two 25 MW diesel fuel turbines operate at the substation's 22 kV. After this line was operational, the two other power stations closed and the equipment was gradually removed from the Central Power Station. The mothballed Southern Power Station, now owned by remnant miner Perilya, still houses five, 9 cylinder, Nordberg marine engines and two Mirrlees V16 marine engines.
In 2010, the Central Power Station buildings were handed back to Broken Hill City Council for a proposed re-development as a film studio, due to the perceived need for a facility in Broken Hill by some local people in preparation for the production of Mad Max: Fury Road. The historic machinery was removed and the giant pits in which the motors were housed were filled with concrete to convert the buildings into a warehouse-type layout. The Broken Hill City Council received considerable funding and spent a large amount of money and resources on establishing a film studio in the buildings, but as of 2014 the buildings remained largely empty and unused as the production of Fury Road had been shifted to Namibia, Africa, following higher than expected rainfall in the Broken Hill region.
In October 2024, Broken Hill and its surrounds suffered a major power outage caused when a storm blew down seven transmission towers. It took 9 days before the local back-up battery was connected, since there were significant technical and regulatory challenges that needed to be fully understood and addressed to make sure the battery did not cause any further issues on the local grid.
Solar power
The high potential for solar power, given the extensive daily hours of sunshine in the town, led to construction of the 53 MW Broken Hill Solar Plant by AGL Energy. It was funded and supported by the Australian Government and New South Wales Government in a bid to encourage the move away from coal generated power in favour of renewable energy. The plant was completed in 2016 and was one of the largest in Australia at the time.
Battery and compressed air
From 2020, the Silver City Energy Storage 200 MW / 1600 MWh (8-hour) compressed-air energy storage (CAES) facility in the Potosi mine is proposed for Broken Hill to balance local electricity around 2028.
A 50 MW one-hour battery (at the substation and diesel generators) started in August 2024, and has grid-forming capabilities.
Water
Broken Hill has never had a permanent local water supply that meets the town's needs. By 1888 when the town's population had reached 5,000, the state government built a series of small storage tanks.
By the 1890s, mining development had increased to the point that there was a severe water shortage and the mines and the people fought for water. Emergency water supplies were shipped by rail from the Darling River. In 1891, the Stephens Creek Reservoir was completed by a private company. The cost of water was high but not excessive and people were willing to pay because the environment was arid. Another reservoir was built at Umberumberka, however variable rainfall meant supplemental supplies by rail and rationing was still needed.
In 1952, Broken Hill's demands for a permanent water supply were met with the completion of a 61 cm (24 in) pipeline from Menindee. The pipeline could supply 1.6 megalitres (57,000 ft3; 420,000 US gal) of water per hour. Water storage facilities that are part of the Menindee Lakes Scheme on the Darling River secured the water supply to Broken Hill, making it a relative oasis amid the harsh climate of the Australian outback. High evaporation rates have resulted in the policy of using the local storage for supply before using the pipeline.
In 2004, due to severe drought across much of the Murray Darling Basin Catchment area, the Darling River ceased to flow and the Menindee Lakes dried out. Broken Hill essentially ran out of water, with a muddy sludge coming out of some taps around Christmas time in 2004. The high salt content of the water led to a lot of damage to evaporative air conditioners and rusted out hot water systems at an alarming rate.
Due to the over-extraction of water from the tributaries to the Darling River in the early part of the 21st century, the Menindee pipeline became an insecure supply for the city, in its harsh semi-arid climate. In April 2019, a new New South Wales Government-funded pipeline was commissioned. The pipeline was constructed in a joint venture between John Holland Group, MPC Kinetic Group and TRILITY, running 270 km (170 mi) from Wentworth on the Murray River. There are four pumping stations along the route and a 720-megalitre (25-million-cubic-foot; 190-million-US-gallon) bulk water storage facility 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of Broken Hill. The pipeline can supply up to 37.4 megalitres (1.3 million cubic feet; 9.9 million US gallons) of raw water per day.