We had an afternoon in Broken Hill and spent it seeing the sights. We drove out to Silverton, once a rowdy mining town, now virtually derelict but for a big pub, which is said to be the most photographed and filmed in Australia. It’s not that there is anything wildly special about the pub; it’s more that it gives the appearance of being in the middle of nowhere while actually being conveniently handy to the air-conditioned amenities of Broken Hill. It’s been used as a film location 142 times – in A Town like Alice, Mad Max 2 and about every Australian beer commercial ever made. It now gets by, evidently, on the visits of film crews and of occasional tourists like us. Broken Hill has had tough times, too. Even by Australian standards, it is a long way from anywhere – 750 miles from Sydney, the state capital, where all the decisions are made – and its citizens have an understandable tendency to think of themselves as neglected. As recently as the 1950s it had 35,000 people, against just 23,000 now.
