thumb|right|Patton Street, the main commercial district of an area sometimes referred to as 'South Broken Hill'
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 above sea level, with a cold semi-arid climate, and an average rainfall of . The closest major city is Mildura, to the south and the nearest state capital city is Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, which is more than to the southwest and linked via route A32, the Barrier Highway.
The town is prominent in Australia's mining, industrial relations and economic history after the discovery of silver-lead-zinc ore led to the opening of various mines, thus establishing 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.
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 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.
In the Broken Hill region, the major Aboriginal language groups are the Paakantji, Mayyankapa, and Nyiimpaa. 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
thumb|Looking down Sulphide St to the rail line and man-made mullock heaps in the background. The Broken Earth visitor centre is in the background.
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 Wiljakali Indigenous Australians, once thought to have only intermittently lived in the area because of the lack of permanent water sources.
thumb|right|The Broken Hill Town Hall, completed in 1890, was the council seat until 1968.
thumb|The Township of Broken Hill in the early 1900s
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. 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.
thumb|right|The [[Broken Hill Trades Hall was commissioned and built by trade unions of the late 19th century]]
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 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
thumb|Broken Hill Court House
thumb|[[Palace Hotel, Broken Hill|Palace Hotel]]
thumb|Duke of Cornwall Inn
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, 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.
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 consists of 2 static inverters working with a voltage of 8.33 kV. , the line is 220 kV and runs 260 km from Buronga, and 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 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
thumb|Broken Hill solar plant. Broken Hill receives a high proportion of sunlight, making it suitable for electricity to be generated from 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
A 50 MW one-hour battery (at the substation and diesel generators) started in August 2024, and has grid-forming capabilities.
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. 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 from Wentworth on the Murray River. There are four pumping stations along the route and a bulk water storage facility south of Broken Hill. The pipeline can supply up to of raw water per day.
Transport
thumb|[[Broken Hill railway station]]
The city's isolation was a problem until the Adelaide narrow-gauge railway link was finished in 1888. Since the Government of New South Wales would not allow the South Australian Railways to continue its narrow-gauge railway across the border to the mines, the last were built and operated by a private company, the Silverton Tramway Company. "Silverton" was incorporated into the name because the railway was originally intended to serve the mining town of Silverton. However, by the time the railway reached Silverton it was already being eclipsed by the newer and bigger mine at Broken Hill. The main purpose of the railway was to transport concentrates and ores from the mines to the smelters and port facilities on the coast at Port Pirie, South Australia. Backloading to Broken Hill transported supplies, principally coal for boilers at the mines and timber for the timber sets used underground in mining. The Silverton Tramway Company was the most profitable railway company on the Australian Securities Exchange.
thumb|The [[Outback Xplorer at Broken Hill railway station]]
The main sidings and locomotive servicing facilities were in Railwaytown, a suburb of Broken Hill, with sidings running to the south and north to serve the mines. The main passenger station was at Sulphide Street.
thumb|The [[Broken Hill Post Office; rail lines played a significant role in Broken Hill's postal system]]
From the later 1890s, Broken Hill Council campaigned for a street tramway to provide public transport around town and to the mines. Eventually the Government of New South Wales decided to build one, which was opened in 1902. It was operated by steam trams transferred from Sydney by sea and then by rail across South Australia. After World War I it sustained increasing losses until the Government of New South Wales closed the system in 1926.
A curiosity was the Tarrawingee Tramway, a narrow-gauge railway line that ran north from Broken Hill for about to an area of limestone deposit which was transported to Broken Hill for use in the smelters at the mines. The tramway opened in 1891 but closed in 1898 as the smelters moved to Port Pirie. In 1889 the Public Works Committee of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly recommended that the Government take over the line and it subsequently became a narrow-gauge part of the New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) run under contract by the Silverton Tramway Company.
An excursion train on the Silverton Tramway was fired on by two immigrant supporters of the wartime Ottoman Empire in 1915. They shot dead four people and wounded seven more before being killed by police and military officers.
In 1919, a rail link from Broken Hill to Menindee was opened, mainly to transport water from the Darling River to Broken Hill. Earlier sections of what became the Broken Hill railway line had been opened as early as 1885, reaching Trida in 1919, but a gap remained between Trida and Menindee. It was finally closed in 1925, resulting in a continuous route from Sydney to Broken Hill. The terminus for the train was at Crystal Street station, from the Silverton Tramway Company's Sulphide Street station. The rolling stock was transported by sea to South Australia and the railway was supervised by the superintendent of the Broken Hill Government Tramways.
In 1927, the direct link to Sydney was completed. In 1937 the NSWGR placed the Silver City Comet into service – the first air-conditioned train in Australia, which ran between Broken Hill and Parkes.
During World War II land transportation between South Australia and the eastern states became important because of the threat posed by submarines and mines to coastal shipping. Extensive transshipment yards were constructed at Broken Hill in 1942 to allow transshipment of munitions.
With the purchase of the Sulphide Corporation by the Zinc Corporation in 1948, the modern Cockle Creek Smelter was constructed south of Newcastle. This started to take lead and zinc concentrates directly from Broken Hill via rail in the 1960s via the W44 Concentrate Train, marking the first major use of the rail link to the eastern seaboard.
In 1970 the gauge railway from Broken Hill to Port Pirie was superseded by a more heavily built gauge line, broadly following the narrow-gauge route but with easier gradients and broader curves. This completed the long-awaited transcontinental rail corridor from Sydney to Perth.
Broken Hill railway station is one of the stops of the Indian Pacific passenger service, operated by Journey Beyond, from Sydney to Perth via Adelaide. The weekly NSW TrainLink Outback Xplorer service was introduced in 1996; it arrives from Sydney on Mondays, departing Broken Hill on Tuesdays for the return to Sydney. NSW TrainLink also operates a daily road coach service connecting at Dubbo with the Central West XPT to Sydney. The return journey arrives daily at 22:45. On 24 June 2019, NSW TrainLink introduced a twice-weekly coach service to Adelaide. NSW TrainLink also operates a coach service to Mildura, on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Rex Airlines operates air services from Broken Hill Airport to and from Adelaide, Dubbo, Griffith, and Sydney. Silver City Scenic Flights provide local scenic flights over the city, longer air safaris to various destinations in outback Australia and also private air charter services from Broken Hill Airport.
Local public transport is provided by CDC Broken Hill, operating four city bus routes from Monday to Saturday. The city is also serviced by two urban taxi companies.
Climate
Broken Hill has a cold semi arid climate (BSk) under the Köppen climate classification. Winters in Broken Hill are relatively cool; summers are mostly hot and dry, with the odd cold front that causes a sharp temperature drop from time to time, on account of its far-western longitude exposing it to cold airmasses off the Great Australian Bight. The average maximum during the summer is about with an average of 25% humidity, although storms and cooler weather do occur. Broken Hill averages 157.3 clear days per year. Dust storms are a common problem in the desert, but in the late 1930s the people of Broken Hill, led by Mr Keast of the Zinc Corporation mine, created green reserves to surround the town, thus protecting it from the worst of the storms. Dew points in the summer average between .