Mundi Mundi Bash Trip - Part 3

Continuing on with our recent trip, we arrived in Broken Hill on Easter Sunday afternoon.  

The town was filling fast with people heading to the Mundi Mundi Bash.  Our friends were booked into a caravan and we were camping in the overflow camping at the racecourse.

Our glamorous camp site for the next three nights.

I loved this historic grandstand.  I haven’t seen one built from stone before.

There were quite a lot of us camping there.  The fee was very reasonable and we were surprised that there was even power hook up and a dump point near the entrance, which was very handy when we left.

While here, we were able to  collect our tickets for the bash.  We loved the mural near the office.

On Friday Mick started to have a little niggle with one of his teeth.  This gradually got worse, and painkillers weren’t helping a great deal.  By Sunday he was really struggling, even to the stage of us seriously looking at turning around and heading home.

On Sunday night we ended up going to Emergency at the Broken Hill Hospital.  They identified an infection and gave him some antibiotics to see if that would help.  He planned to give it another day to see if there was any improvement.  Fortunately, there was and we were able to continue with our trip.  The above picture is a mural on the wall in the Emergency Ward.

The following morning we woke to this stunning sunrise.

 

As the following day was Easter Monday, with not many businesses open in Broken Hill, we decided to drive out to Menindee.  Menindee is located on the Darling River and there is a series of lakes in the area. There are nine lakes.  In the 1960s the government put in a dam wall to create a water storage.  You can read all about them here.  They made national, if not international news during the drought a few years ago when millions of fish died.  

Incredibly, the entire lake system is now more than 100 percent full.  What a turn around.  We had to go and see it.

The small township of Menindee was the last staging post of the Burke and Wills exploration to the interior of Australia.

We had lunch at the Hotel where the explorers stayed.  The meal was delicious. I didn’t realise it at the time and therefore missed seeing it, but there is a memorial just outside the pub.  I found a really interesting article here.

There was also a nice little volunteer run information centre/museum/craft shop.  There is obviously someone out that way that enjoys quilting.

One place I was hoping to visit was the Kinchega Woolshed.  This historic woolshed is now part of a national park.  You can read its history here. 

It has been added to the national heritage register.

It was built in 1875 and in its heyday they would shear 75,000 sheep each year,  The shed was originally twice as long as it currently is.

It was really interesting having a look around.

By then it was time to start heading home, but not before having another look at the main Menindee Lake from a different vantage point.

There were so many birds catching fish just below the weir.

The weather was starting to build up to the south west, making the view rather dramatic.

What surprised us was that the main western railway line ran right beside the lake and over the weir.

And that was our day filled in very nicely.

It rained overnight and this is what our camp site looked like on Tuesday morning.  Oh dear, so many people were heading out to “Mundiville” that day.  The road out was closed until after lunch, due to creek crossings being flooded. Fortunately, we intended to spend another day in Broken Hill before heading on out.

There was even water over the road for us to get to town.

We had a nice wander up and down the street, including morning tea.  Broken Hill has some impressive architecture.  

The Palace Hotel was made famous by the movie “Pricilla Queen of the Desert”. The town now hosts an annual “Broken Heel” festival in the movie’s honour.

There are also some quirky and cute old buildings.

The town was founded on the back of the discovery of silver and continues to be a major silver mining centre.

The Line of Load overlooks the town and has a memorial to the miners who have lost their lives since mining began in the area.

We had to go up and have a look.

The view over the town is rather impressive.

And that filled up another day.

On the following day, Wednesday, we would be heading out to “Mundiville” and the fun would begin.  

More soon.