On Saturday and day two of our Broken Hill or Bust road trip. We were heading from Mildura to Broken Hill. We had a bright, beautiful, sunshiney, warm day ahead. Body clocks were off-kilter from the early start the day before. We were all up by 6 am again. We had a leisurely breakfast in our motel room and headed into town. I checked out a few shops, had morning tea at Gloria Jeans, and then went to the wharf for our paddle steamer cruise.

Paddle Steamer Cruise

We cruised on the Rothbury for two hours upriver, past loads of other paddle steamers moored along the banks. The river was well down, though. We travelled up to Lock 11 and back.  Refreshments on board (the short person was happy), souvenirs available (the short person was very happy). Going through the lock was enjoyable (but slow) had never seen one in operation before. Seeing the boat rise and fall with the lock workings was quite quirky.

While we enjoyed our cruise, two hours on a slow-moving boat is as bad as six hours in a car. It would have been much more enjoyable on a one-hour cruise. But still fun. We were back in Mildura by 1 pm, in the car, on the road, and off to Broken Hill.

Getting There

Famous as the birthplace of BHP Billiton, Broken Hill is an isolated mining city in the far west of outback NSW. It holds the distinction of being Australia’s longest-lived mining city. Sitting almost on the border of South Australia, in the Barrier Ranges, Broken Hill is reached by the Barrier Highway to South Australia and Silver City Highway to Victoria. It is 844kms from Melbourne, 500kms from Adelaide and 1100 kms from Sydney.  We had chosen spring to visit as its average temperatures in summer are well over 40c (104F)

The road is good and had a surprising amount of traffic on it for something that appeared so isolated. We passed many cars travelling in both directions, not bumper to bumper.  We did stop about halfway for a quick cuppa and biscuit. As there was not ONE town or service centre between Mildura and Broken Hill, we had packed our own. However, the stop was brief as flies would pick you up and carry you away!

Isolation

Mobile reception is almost non-existent once you leave Mildura. And we didn’t get service back until we were about 6kms out of town, so the passing cars were very reassuring. However, it felt like Wolf Creek country, and we hoped if we broke down, we wouldn’t be helped by John Jarret.

We made good time and arrived in Broken Hill around 4 pm. #1 sister had started feeling ill on the drive, so after we met our lovely hostess from Jaden Cottages at our new home, the short person and I unloaded the car and settled in while she showered and rested on the couch.

Not in the plan

Our new accommodation was a three-bedroom house with a lovely little backyard. It had a well-set-out kitchen with supplies and very comfy beds. However, the couch resting wasn’t helping. And, as all doctors in Broken Hill seemed to close at midday, we added Broken Hill Hospital Emergency Dept to our must-see places.  We waited about an hour in the waiting room before they took her through to a hospital trolley for treatment. Not too bad, considering. But they only had one doctor on and were slammed with an emergency case. The poor patient was wired up to equipment looking like a supercomputer. The nursing staff and doctors were stabilising them while they waited for transfer via Royal Flying Doctor Service to a major city.

Short person and I left her there and returned home to wait it out.  She returned home around midnight via a cab. All patients discharged out of hours are sent home via a taxi paid through medicare. What a fab idea!  Loaded up with lots of pills, we tucked her into bed and settled down for the night. The next day, we were off to Silverton.