Long Ride (Drive) 2014 - Day 17 - Silverton

Day 17 was supposed to have been a day of exploring the Silverton area by bike, especially the Mundi Mundi plains area.  For obvious reasons this wouldn't be entirely possible however, the ghost town still had to be explored.

It started with the night before in the Silverton Hotel's new accommodation.  The rooms were very spacious and extremely modern, the ruins separating the pub from the accommodation were a little spooky but that really added to the appeal.

The first night in the pub was great, meeting the locals as well as a number of tourists, an older couple from South Australia were brilliant.  Quite a few drinks were consumed and stories told.  We were almost the last to leave and as we did so a voice from the far corner said "Thanks for coming".  It wasn't the staff or owners, so who was it?

We went to bed with the rooms boiling hot, the day had been well into the mid 30's, not long after the wind picked up making the front door bang slightly.  

It was easy to get to sleep, and even easier to be woken up.  In the early hours of the morning the temperature had dropped dramatically, there was a huge bang at the front door and a god awful howling coming from outside, it sounded like the hounds of hell had been released.  I lay in bed frozen with fear, not sure if the pain killers were making me dream of weird things again or whether something sinister was outside the room.

Bloody hell Leigh, I thought, wanting to slap myself into reality, it was just the wind blowing through the ruins.  I eventually fell into an interrupted sleep, waking when the sun started to come up. Unbelievably the sun did little to warm the land, it was cold, very cold.

After a breakfast of Jordan's granola and Black Swan yogurt the plan was to explore the town, on foot. 

There's an excellent Heritage Trail around the area taking in many of Silverton's ruins and what better place to start than the busiest street in the town, Burke Street.  The pub sits on the corner of Burke and Layard Streets.

Almost all of Australia's early explorers passed through the area, Major Thomas Mitchell, Charles Sturt and Burke & Wills, yet the area wasn't settled until a false claim of a gold discovery was made in 1867.

Less than a decade later silver was found by accident when a bore was being sunk for water.  This lead to a population explosion which reached it's peak in 1890 of 3,000.  During this time the area was organised into a town proper, the Silverton Tramway (train line) was connected to the South Australian network at Cockburn in 1888, opening up the region to further development.

The towns population fluctuated during the late 1800's and early 1900's especially as richer iron and silver deposits were found at Broken Hill however, Silverton was a popular destination for the residents of the newer town.  In 1915 the Battle of Broken Hill took place, just a few months before ANZAC troops landed on the beaches of Gallipoli.

Two Afghan former camel workers declared their allegiance to the Ottoman Empire, who Australia, through its planned involvement in the Great War, had essentially declared war against.  They planned to target the Broken Hill to Silverton New Years Day picnic train loaded with 1200 holiday makers.

In doing so, they essentially brought Australia into the war on our land (not to forget the first shots of World War I actually being fired from the heads of Port Phillip Bay in Victoria.  Two people were killed in the attack and seven injured, a number of the victims were children.

As the two attackers fled they killed another man, in the meantime the train stopped at a siding and was able to alert the police who on turn contacted the local military.  The two Afghan's shot and wounded a local constable as the continued to flee.  Once pinned down locals joined the military forces and a 90 minute gun battle took place although, little came of it. Unfortunately a local man, who was cutting wood, was hit by a stray bullet and became the fourth person killed.

In the aftermath of the battle, the locals didn't turn on the Afghan or Muslim communities instead turning their anger on the German's in the area, stating that they had instigated the entire attack.  Unfortunately the local Turkish people said that the whole event had been staged by the local military to bolster support for the troops heading to the battle fields.  

It seems that in 100 years we have learnt very little from the events.

With this new knowledge of the town we moved across Burke Street and started to explore the many buildings laying in ruins.  The wind was howling through the landscape adding to the ghostly atmosphere, it was brilliant.

While walking through what was left of this part of town I couldn't help but feel how difficult it must of been for the people.  While the buildings, or what was remaining, were essentially solid stone I doubted that that would have offered little protection from the extremes in weather as we had witnessed over the past few days.

The ruins were beautiful and now I was beginning to see why so many artists saw this area as a perfect place to ply their trade.

The walk now took us into the hills to a lookout giving brilliant 360 degree views.  The map suggested we had to walk to the next hill, we could see it but it looked like the walk would be another 2 or 3 kilometres away.  We looked at the map again and decided to cut across land to the nearby rail line which, had ceased to exist since 1970.

The walk across the land wasn't tough although, we were mindful of the many snakes in the area.

The old rail cutting shows how much
work went into creating the connection
with South Australia.

We eventually made it to the railway and entered the cutting. This was just as spooky as the ruins, with the wind blowing across the top creating a strange sound that made it feel like someone was watching us.  We continued up the narrow cutting back towards town and to our surprise we stumbled across a rail spike, and looking at it's condition it looked original making it over 130 years old.  How the hell no one had seen this before has me beat, but I wasn't complaining it was now mine ... anyone who knows me well enough knows I love old 'junk'.  I know it would be worth nothing but it is a little piece of Australia's history, a pretty good find I reckon.

A relic of the past.  How was this not
found years ago?

The cutting was quite large and eventually went through some strange walled area that looked like it must of been some sort of platform although, I don't think it was where the original station was located.

Eventually the rail line led us back to the outskirts of the town, the map suggested we take a right turn and up to the cafe on top of the hill.

The cafe, while in an older style building, looked as if it had been rebuilt yet kept to the style of the surrounds.  The food was pretty good, and the place was popular.  The building next door was amazing, it was in ruins yet gave a clear picture to the size of this building.  It was large, with four rooms and two fireplaces, I'd say someone with a bit of money owned this place, now it was a unique garden for the cafe.

Slightly further up the road was the Mad Max II museum however, they didn't take EFTPOS so this would have to wait until tomorrow.

Even the dump has a beauty about it.
Someone obviously had a massive
night some years ago.

In this part of the 'town' there were a number of art galleries and all worth a look, the artists in this region are brilliant and are here for the unique colours and light, I totally get it, the place is beautiful, even the rubbish dump had a unique look to it. Silverton is a photographers paradise, I just wish I didn't have a gimpy arm at the moment so that I could handle a camera a little better.  

One thing that strikes you about Silverton is the number of Volkswagen Beetles that are scattered around the landscape, and all with the original teardrop headlights. One that took my eye was an older 1960's model, similar to what I used to own, it had strange emu paintings all over it, adding to the character, I loved it.

It turned out to be in front of the house that belonged to Pete and Patsy, the owners of the Silverton Hotel.  

By now my shoulder was giving me hell and just wanted to rest but there was just too much to look at so we pushed on passing a number of churches, some were vacant, one had been turned into a beautiful home.  I guess someone looks after churches, they always tend to be some of the last buildings to fall into ruin.  They were magnificent and added great character to the town.  Further down the road was the school museum, manned by an old military man, he was able to give us a great history of Silverton and point out which people were original families, amazingly there are still a few that live here that can trace their history right back to the start.

After a short rest the next thing to do was check out what the Silverton Common was all about.  It essentially means that the whole area around the town is looked after by a committee.  The committee are responsible for ensuring that the natural landscape is maintained and not ruined by people walking or driving over it.  There's also a clause that allows the towns people to let their animals roam freely, it's pretty unique and looks amazing when you consider that horses and cows just walk through the town area like they own it, although it can be a little dangerous at times.

Inside the pub, a little different to the
way it used to be but still full of
atmosphere.

From here it was back to the pub for a few refreshments and some dinner.  The food is pretty basic, there's no chef, the bar staff actually cook what you order, our cook for the night was a young British backpacker.  The great thing is, the food is just as cheap as what it would cost if you cooked it yourself.

Over dinner we discussed the days adventures and the fact that I had been told that my bike had been written off by the insurance assessor.  I didn't think the 'off' was that bad but apparently there was considerable damage to the bike. I wonder if they'll do the same with my shoulder?

The night ended talking about the Long Ride and men's health, so another good result.  As we left we were asked where we'd been for day, we explained.  Then we were questioned why we hadn't been to the gallery across the road.  With no excuse we promised to visit in the morning.  As we walked out the door a voice from the corner said, "Thanks for coming".  I know realised who it was.