Silverton - NSW

Popular destination for movie makers. This near-ghost is town full of interesting arts and craft shops. Silverton is a fascinating town located near the South Australian border, 1183 km west of Sydney via the Great Western, Mitchell and Barrier Highways and 24 km west of Broken Hill along an atrocious piece of sealed road. Once a thriving mining centre of 3000 Silverton is now a virtual ghost town of about 50 inhabitants with a number of historic buildings, several art galleries and museums and a pub and that is about it. It is a town surrounded by 4000 hectares of land known as The Silverton Common, in a semi-arid zone.

Silverton is the only town in NSW that can boast 100% employment, the old Penrose Park that was built and maintained by Broken Hill mines as a place of respite for Broken Hill mining families contained playgrounds, tennis courts, cricket ground and lovely bush gardens. Home to a group of long time artists and retired Broken Hill miners that congregate almost every other night to watch the magnificent sunset across the Mundy Mundy plains where you can see a huge landscape that is as flat as a tack as far as the eye can see.

When you cross the plains though the area is not quite as flat as it appears. The bitumen road from Broken Hill to Silverton is fine, sure there are many dips in the road which are there to allow the water to flow during heavy rains. The pub has legendary stories about events and the famous people who have visited, along with the original vehicle from the Mad Max movies. Author - Paul & Fiona Bathurst.