Page 187 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Australia

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tBourke
Mungo World Heritage Area
* 3,000. ~ @ @ n Kidman Way
(02) 6872 1321. ∑ visitbourke.com Lake Mungo is an area of great
archaeological significance.
Situated on the Darling River, part For 40,000 years, it was a 10-m
of Australia’s longest river system, (33-ft) deep lake, around
Bourke is a colourful town that which Aborigines lived. The
was once the centre of the lake then dried up, leaving its
world’s wool industry. It still eastern rim as a wind-blown
produces 25,000 bales per year. sand ridge known as the
Bourke’s heyday is evident in Walls of China. Its age was
the colonial buildings and the determined in the 1960s when
old weir, wharf, lock and lift-up winds uncovered an Aboriginal
span bridge which recall the skeleton known as Mungo
Man. Lake Mungo has been
days of the paddlesteamer protected as part of the
trade to Victoria (see p435). Willandra Lakes World Heritage
The town’s cemetery tells Area since 1981 (see pp30–31). Walls of China sand ridges
something of Bourke’s history:
Afghan camel drivers who
brought the animal to Australia
from the Middle East in the Surprisingly, Broken Hill also shearing complexes of the
19th century are buried here. has more than 20 art galleries former station. The homestead
featuring desert artists. The overlooks peaceful Willandra
city is also the base of the Creek, where grasslands and
yBroken Hill Royal Flying Doctor Service creek beds are home to
* 21,000. ~ £ @ @ n cnr (see p261) and School of the Air. kangaroos, emus and ground-
Blende and Bromide sts (08) 8080 To the northwest of Broken nesting birds.
3560. ∑ visitbrokenhill.com.au Hill is Silverton, once a thriving
silver mining community and
The unofficial centre of Outback now a ghost town. It is popular iWagga Wagga
New South Wales, Broken Hill as a location for films, such as * 57,000. ~ £ @
Mad Max
Mad Max and and Priscilla, Queen
is a mining city perched on Mad Max n Tarcutta St, 1300 100 122.
the edge of the deserts of of the Desert. ∑ tourismwaggwawagga.com.au
inland Australia. The town was
established in 1883, when vast Named by its original
deposits of zinc, lead and silver uWillandra inhabitants, the Widadjuri
were discovered in a 7-km National Park people, as “a place of many
(4-mile) long “Line of Lode” by n 200 Yambil St, Griffith (02) 6966 crows”, Wagga Wagga has
the then-fledgling company, grown into a large, modern
Broken Hill Pty Ltd. Broken Hill 8100. Open daily. Closed in wet city serving the surrounding
weather. & 7 to homestead.
has since grown into a major ∑ nationalparks.nsw.gov.au farming community. It has won
town and BHP has become many accolades for its wines
Australia’s biggest corporation. Willandra National Park, on and the abundance of gardens
Broken Hill’s now declining the edge of a riverine plain, has earned it the title of “Garden
mining industry is still evident; has significant wildlife and City of the South”.
slag heaps are piled up, there historic values. The park covers The large Botanic Gardens
are more pubs per head than part of the once prosperous and the Wagga Historical
any other city in the state and Willandra Sheep Station and Museum are well worth a
streets are named after metals. contains the homestead and visit. The Widadjuri track is
a popular walk along the
Murrumbidgee River banks.
Environs
The gentle town of Gundagai,
nestling beneath Mount
Parnassus on the banks of the
Murrumbidgee River, has been
immortalized in the bush ballad
“Along the Road to Gundagai”.
More tragic is Gundagai’s place
in history as the site of
Australia’s greatest natural
disaster when floods swept
Historic pub in the ghost town of Silverton, near Broken Hill away the town in 1852.
For hotels and restaurants in this area see pp483–4 and pp507–9