We arrive at the RFDS base at the Broken Hill airport, I must say, the signage to the place could have been better. Although there are a few cars in the car park, it would seem we are the first visitors here.
We watch the 15min video of the service, and it’s great that the kids really get something out of it. We’re doing this tour today as it is probably the last chance to visit an RFDS base, in hindsight, we should have visited the first base we came across. I knew at any stage in this journey we may have need the help of these guys, and it would have been good to really appreciate the work they do earlier on.
After the video the guide show us the comms centre and then we go onto a viewing platform for the hanger. The guide is clearly really passionate about the job he does and that honestly and enthusiasm is great to see.
Like most of South Eastern Australia, today is Hot. There are a couple of sites in town that look ok, are indoors and probably air conditioned. We settle on the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, but first a quick side trip to Junction Mine.
We step inside and I’m not sure we’ve made the right choice, but they start with a collection of Mervyn Bishop photos, and they are great. Black and White photos, most of them are so powerful, and while several are highly recognisable, the image with Gough Whitlam and Vincent Lingiari at the land handover ceremony is massively moving.
We drive up to the top of one of the old mines and visit the Miners Memorial, as much as anything to get a great view of the town. Having said that, the place is a wakeup call to the working conditions the workers had to face. Not least would have been the temperature, it’s now so hot that it is actually difficult to breathe. These guys worked in wool suits – I don’t know how they managed. We’re not alone, this weather is all over this part of the country.
Beaten, we head back to the van park, a quick swim and we all try and recover a bit in the van.
We start getting ready for dinner, soon after we see a red dust storm on the horizon, it’s a bit too late when I take a photo, so it really doesn’t show the spectre of the storm on the horizon. For the next hour everything outside is a bit gritty. But things do cool down a bit, the BOM reports temperatures at 35, but feels like 29. I’ll take that.
…Thank God for the RFDS …….what a mighty job they do.
PK xx