White's Mine and Doll & Bear Display.

Road Trip Day 5: 27th May 2007 (Morning)

Kevin White's Mineral Art and Living Mining Museum and Betty White's Handmade Doll & Bear display is an unlikely pairing of themes and subject matter but makes for an interesting experience for the whole family.

Located in Broken Hill, a slight detour off the road to Silverton, visitors are greeted and then directed to view a short video that covers the history of mining in the region (up to 1983... leaving you to wonder if some of the future projections made in the video have come to pass). The video gives a good over view of the Broken Hill story to a trip to the town could easily begin at White's Mine.

Betty was our guide for Kevin's replica mine museum. She did an excellent job pointing out the contrast between early mining and the mostly machine driven, push button technology used today. She made the point that when people talk about the 'good old days' of mining, the only thing 'good' about them is that they're gone. Such was the appalling conditions early miners had to work in.

A feature of the mining museum is Kevin's mineral art. Images made entirely from finely crumbled mineral rock. Kevin has, what seemed like, hundreds of artworks created this way ranging from mining scenes, to iconic Broken Hill buildings to important events and stories in Australian history.

An unusual feature of this museum is that you are encouraged to take photos of the exhibits. Betty and Kevin understand that there is a lot to take in so they are happy to let you snap away.

Betty's collection of Home made dolls and bears is exceptionally large, filling up the other half of the museum. Her collection consists of dolls she has made and dolls she has collected. There are dolls of all sizes and made to many different themes from wizards to barber shop quartets.

The White Museum also has an extensive gift shop featuring a number of unique mining souvenirs that you can't buy elsewhere.

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