Seashalia: Broken Hill - Hay - and Griffith, and Home 25th

Thank you for sharing our beautiful holiday trip with us. We had quite a few days in Broken Hill. I could remember the street names, but not much of the town at first, but it does not take long to remember where everything is. The “Line of lode” still runs through the city and it is 38 years since we were there and nothing much had changed except Woolworths had built a small shopping complex .

Broken Hill Entertainment Centre

BH Gallery

Broken Hill

View of Broken Hill from the Cafe

Cafe on Line of Lode, BH

In Broken Hill we were happy to see very many old friends and the love they shared with us was very evident. Some of the youth, who were our special project (we were about 24 when we arrived there) are now grand-parents. They were all very hospitable and it was great to see them. We went to some lovely galleries and looked over some venues which were special to us, like the University where Graeme used to teach, our two homes, one rented and one purchased and where Darlene was born. We tripped out to the dam and to Menindee Lakes, which recently had 30 feet of flood waters in the river and the lakes.

Dry Creek Bed

Emus on the road

BH Hospital Chapel

Menindee Lakes

An old BH mine

Pro Hart's Gallery Organ

Silverton

Twisty Road to Menindee

We moved on to Hay where we caught up with long time friends David and Betty Andrew whom we knew at Griffith. They took us out for a day and showed us all around Hay. Italian, German and European Jews were kept out there in camps during the 2^nd World War and the town still remembers by switching on the “search lights” every single night. Betty plays the beautiful pipe organ at the old church, maybe it was the Cathedral, but the church building is getting very old and some of the worshippers keep a wary eye out to make sure it does not fall down on them. Graeme had a little play on the organ.

When we left Broken Hill our warm weather ran out, and Griffith was 1 degree, but ended up with plenty of sunshine, but not too much warmth. The Murrumbidgee River has been in full flood since the rains and it is quite pretty . The farms were looking brilliant with beautiful crops of wheat and Canola. The place truly shines like a beautiful jewel . We visited friends, Yvonne and Wayne who are trying to get their Seed Crushing Plant up and running . It was a huge investment made before the drought arrived 12 years ago, but it stayed unused all through the drought . We also visited the large new church .

Griffith is full of multi million dollar wineries these days. We called by to see lots of friends all over the place and were given a warm and loving welcome from many friends from the past. We took a nostalgic look over CSIRO and we had a great tour of the place. The lovely home we built 35 years ago, still looks brand new and beautiful and is on the market again. The town has doubled in size, as far as the business premises go. I don’t know of any other town that could do that during a 12 year drought!