Cobar to Broken Hill - 457km
The plan for the day was to spend the morning in Cobar and then to leave to Broken Hill. The team had a couple of elders who thought waking up at 4:30am is a must in their lives. We owe our early departures to them. Not happy but worked well....
Our first stop was Cobar name board at the entrance of the town. Cobar is a mining town. Ngemba and Wongaiban people lived here. Copper mining was the main income prior to WW1 and then Gold. We met two other Sydney siders here and they shared a lot of information about Cobar and Broken Hill. The information from them recommended Bourke Hill but not the Heritage Centre. Having spent too much time chatting to them restricted our options anyways.
By the look of it, there are some good Aboriginal heritage walks and mine tours that one could take and we have missed.
Lesson - Going to the information centre first is a must no matter how much homework one had done. They can guide you way better than Dr Google.
Fort Bourke Hill lookout was our next visit. It gave a panoramic view of the town. The viewing platform allowed us to see the open cut gold mine. It is a must see and it will amaze one to no end. Cobar gets its water from Burrendong dam. This water is stored in tanks on Bourke Hill. It seemed like the area had no rain in a long time.
After refueling we started towards Broken Hill. Wilcania was the next town of interest. Town was a deserted place. Aboriginal people live here and they are very friendly and supportive as per the storekeeper. Didn't see anyone other than a few tourists who had drove pass. Could be due to the publicholidays. Only the convenience store was open.
Houses here had a very unique European influenced architecture and are made of sand stones. According to the storekeeper there is not much to see other than the Australia's first brewery and the old bridge over Darling river. This was a very busy inland port in 1800s. Darling river looked very sad. It had dried up. The area had no rain for the past six years. Only a few patches of water the size of a large pond was all what was there to be seen.
The town had no mobile reception. Therefore most of our explorations had to be avoided due to the fear of getting lost without GPS. My main aim was to get to Menindee lakes which is about 155km from Wilcania. Had to give it a miss due to lack of time.
Later on realised that from Wilcania to Broken Hill via Menindee lakes is almost the same as that without going through Menindee lakes. I still regret not taking this root.
Lesson - do not rely on mobile data. Have a good street directory too. After driving for another 200+km we have reached Broken Hill.
The plan for the day was to spend the morning in Cobar and then to leave to Broken Hill. The team had a couple of elders who thought waking up at 4:30am is a must in their lives. We owe our early departures to them. Not happy but worked well....
Our first stop was Cobar name board at the entrance of the town. Cobar is a mining town. Ngemba and Wongaiban people lived here. Copper mining was the main income prior to WW1 and then Gold. We met two other Sydney siders here and they shared a lot of information about Cobar and Broken Hill. The information from them recommended Bourke Hill but not the Heritage Centre. Having spent too much time chatting to them restricted our options anyways.
By the look of it, there are some good Aboriginal heritage walks and mine tours that one could take and we have missed.
Lesson - Going to the information centre first is a must no matter how much homework one had done. They can guide you way better than Dr Google.
Fort Bourke Hill lookout was our next visit. It gave a panoramic view of the town. The viewing platform allowed us to see the open cut gold mine. It is a must see and it will amaze one to no end. Cobar gets its water from Burrendong dam. This water is stored in tanks on Bourke Hill. It seemed like the area had no rain in a long time.
After refueling we started towards Broken Hill. Wilcania was the next town of interest. Town was a deserted place. Aboriginal people live here and they are very friendly and supportive as per the storekeeper. Didn't see anyone other than a few tourists who had drove pass. Could be due to the publicholidays. Only the convenience store was open.
Houses here had a very unique European influenced architecture and are made of sand stones. According to the storekeeper there is not much to see other than the Australia's first brewery and the old bridge over Darling river. This was a very busy inland port in 1800s. Darling river looked very sad. It had dried up. The area had no rain for the past six years. Only a few patches of water the size of a large pond was all what was there to be seen.
The town had no mobile reception. Therefore most of our explorations had to be avoided due to the fear of getting lost without GPS. My main aim was to get to Menindee lakes which is about 155km from Wilcania. Had to give it a miss due to lack of time.
Later on realised that from Wilcania to Broken Hill via Menindee lakes is almost the same as that without going through Menindee lakes. I still regret not taking this root.
Lesson - do not rely on mobile data. Have a good street directory too. After driving for another 200+km we have reached Broken Hill.
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