Gunning for Broken Hill.

Road Trip Day 3: 25th May 2007

Today is the day that we would be arriving in Broken Hill. No more distractions. Well, almost. First Rose and I did a quick walk around the Burra town centre, visiting the Gas Light Coffee and Second hand bookshop (where Rose added to her book collection).

Next we stopped in at the Burra Visitor Information Centre. The man behind the counter told us it would take five and a half hours to drive to the town of Broken Hill. A final stop in the local IGA supermarket to buy camera batteries and other supplies then we were on our way. 11:20am.

The drive to Broken Hill, along the Barrier Highway, is long. After about an hour and using about half of our remaining half a tank of petrol I decided we probably needed to fill the tank. Thus our first stop was at Oodla Wirra, BP Service Station.

Just up the road, coming the other way, is the Quarentine Station where everyone intending to drive any further into South Australia are relieved of any fruit or vegetables they may be carrying.

It's hard to describe the landscape on this trip. It changes from hilly areas to vast open space. Much of the time the road is straight and goes on forever. There are plenty of trees dotted around - particularly around homesteads but the trees never get dense enough to be called 'forest'.

During the drive, before we stopped for lunch, we passed the Channel Seven, Sunrise Weather Bus which was pulled over at the side of the road at Yutla (I think). Probably getting supplies before continuing in the same direction as us. I think they were on their way to Broken Hill too.

Towns along this stretch of road are small. The larger ones have a Post Office, pub and service station. The smaller ones may have just a pub or road house. Most have just a few houses. You could almost walk through some and still miss them.

At 2pm we stopped for lunch at the Manna Hill rest area. Manna Hill has a Pub and a Police Station. For quite some time the road had been running parallel to a railway line and string of power poles. Manna Hill also has a historic railway station.

We stopped just in time to snap a goods train passing through then wondered why it stopped so that the end of the train was level with the railway platform. Five to ten minutes later the Indian/Pacific Passenger train came through on route to Broken Hill and beyond. I would have snapped a picture of this train too only I was busy taking other pictures and didn't see it coming until it was too late. (It came up behind the other train which is why I didn't see it).

Whilst we were lunching the Sunrise Weather bus caught up and passed us by. This is why I think they were headed to Broken Hill. We never caught up to them again and there aren't any sealed road turn offs between Manna Hill and Broken Hill.

3pm and we set off again after having a bit of a photo session around the rest stop. My shoulders and neck were starting to ache a little by the time we crossed the border into New South Wales at the unfortunately named town of 'Cockburn' (though I'm sure it is pronounced 'co-burn' just like the suburb of Perth, Western Australia, that has the same name).

From there the landscape definitely changed from large open space to more rocky and hillier terrain. Eventually we passed a sign that said 'Welcome to Broken Hill' but it was another ten minutes or so before we actually entered the town. 4:30pm

All up we made the trip in five hours from Burra. Four if you exclude the hour lunch break. For the most part I stuck to the maximum speed limit so I don't know how we managed to knock over an hour and a half off the the time given to us by the Burra Information centre?

In Broken Hill we are staying at The Lodge Outback Motel, which is a beautiful old Victorian Stone building that was constructed in the early 1900's and is one of the largest houses in the town. Unfortunately our room isn't in the house its self, rather it's one of a series of purpose built units adjacent to the main house. However it's still a fairly nice room that we're in.

We will be staying in Broken Hill for the next two to three days. Tonight we're planning our itinerary.

Comments

Bruce, South Australia - A Forgotten Aussie Town with Spectacular Landscape Views and Potential

The Bruce Railway Station. Now a private residence. V isiting the almost forgotten town of Bruce reminds me of visiting Silverton back in 2007, except Silverton has been revived into a kind of arts town with a very famous pub. Bruce, on the other hand seems a little too spread out, and a bit too out of the way to make a similar 'arts' kind of revival. Bruce's Pub appears to be an art studio with signs of restoration work in progress. The main part of town appears to be the Bruce railway station (now a private residence) and a pub, also privately owned and possibly was, or still is, and artist studio. Other buildings and homesteads are set fairly wide apart, and are mostly privately owned homes. You don't get much sense of being in a town as such. I'm told there are approximately 14 local residents/families? Once earmarked to be a commercial centre, Bruce fell by the wayside after successive floods and drought in its early years. Obviously the railway line is no lo...

Kids today are smarter than their parents?

Mother's Bed Art Board Print by TET. Available from RedBubble . How often have you heard it said that kids today are smarter than their parents? I’ve heard it quite frequently in the media – even Dr Phil has said it. I say speak for yourself. It’s not true and don’t let the media fool you. Today’s kids may have access to more information that may give them more choices but in my experience, they only take in what they want to hear and still make stupid, uninformed decisions. Just like we used to at their age. Like any cross section of people there will be exceptions. There are kids that are genuinely smarter, more mature and responsible for their age. However the vast majority know everything they need to know by the time they turn fourteen. They’re ‘adult’ enough to be responsible for all their own decision making so parents should just let them do what they please…right? Just like we thought at fourteen. Don’t be fooled. Just because your son knows how to download MP3’s onto an i...

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls. The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

Embarrassing Yourself with Doof Doof Music

Ever since Spinal Tap popularized the notion of turning an amp up to eleven audio systems have been rising to the challenge of louder, more awesome sound. In particular, car audio systems have embraced the notion of the bigger the noise the better the sound must surely be. What I'd like to know is, if these sound systems are so good, why do they make all music sound the same... Doof, Doof, Doof? You've all heard them. Pimped up cars, with audio systems seemingly worth more than gold, volume blasting way past eleven. Sound waves booming long before you make a positive visual on the car... Doof, Doof, Doof. It has to be the audio system right? Surely all these people can't be playing the same tune? Doof, Doof, Doof. Could it be that the more money spent on a car sound system the less musical range it will actually play? Maybe these people can't afford to buy music after purchasing the audio system so they all play the same demo track? Doof, doof, doof. In my own car I hav...

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured). At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop , Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self . As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside . Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme , was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2 , because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below. My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went now...

Movie Review: Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) No Spoilers

J ames Cameron's Avatar movies are one of the few I'll pay to watch in a cinema without knowing anything about the story. Largely because I know they'll at least be visually interesting and worthy of seeing on a big screen. That was the case for the third installment, Avatar: Fire and Ash . I may have seen a trailer at some point in the lead up to its release but I'm not sure? All I could definitely tell you is, in the second movie we were introduced to water tribes, and in this movie we were going to be introduced to fire tribes. Which is really all you need to know in hindsight. The movie does get you up to speed with the key throughlines from Avatar: The Way of Water pretty quickly (well quickly for a three hour Avatar movie). You may even be able to watch this without seeing the first two because it's not entirely necessary to know the history of the characters for this installment. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family are still being pursued by Colon...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog