Distance - 320km (8045km)
Weather - Sunny 19 degrees
It was sad leaving Silverton, it really is one of Australia's little gems, just a shame that the majority of caravaners that go there don't get out and explore it a little - I guess that's the same with most places the 'nomads' visit.
The day started reasonably early as we had to visit the gallery across the road, it belonged to the voice that thanked everyone coming each night at the pub, famous artist John Dynon.
We walked to his studio which had a sign that read "If this is here, we're open", it was hung over a trail bike. The funny thing was no one was here, then we noticed a lone figure pedalling his heart out from the pub, hanging on to his hat in the strong wind.
"Told you we'd be here", I said. He laughed and said he had seen some 'tourists' stopping by. Apparently John goes to the pub for a coffee and keeps an eye out for people stopping by his studio. In fact John is notorious for whistling at passing tourists to get their attention with the hope that they will call in. He doesn't try to sell his work, he just wants to have a chat and a pet hate is that of people who come to the town yet don't get out of their cars for even a look around. I too don't see the point of people going somewhere if they don't explore.
We walked into his shed, a studio, that was quite impressive. John wasn't afraid to show all of his work, even those that are unfinished. I wish I had been loaded, I would certainly have bought many of John's works.
He was good enough to give us a run down of his story, that of the town and his works. John's a real character and what impressed me most was when I noticed a helmet he had painted for the local motocross club to raise funds. It was great and so I enquired about the cost of commissioning a helmet for the next Long Ride to raise funds for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.
John said he preferred to only do stuff for local charity, otherwise he gets so much work that he can't deliver. I was a little bummed. I'm not sure if John picked up on this however, he did say to grab a couple of his prints and he would sign them so we could get them framed and use them to raise money. It was a very generous thing to do, and gave a great insight into the nature of this man.
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| John Dynon has a coffee at the pub every morning. He sits & waits for visitors to his gallery. |
If you are in Silverton please stop and have a look around especially at John's gallery, you can't miss it, you see John is the one who paints the emu's all around Silverton, even on the VW's that are all over the town. If you don't I'm sure you will get a whistle or even a "thanks for coming".
As a fan of the Mad Max movies I couldn't come t Silverton and not visit the Mad Max II museum. It wasn't here the last time I was here, and as the second of the post-apocalyptic trilogy was filmed here it just had to happen.
The museum was opened by a Yorkshire man, Adrian Bennett, who loved the movies so much he just had to live where his favourite was filmed. So the family uprooted from Bradford and moved to Silverton - work that out.
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| The Ford Landau from the opening scene of Mad Max II. |
Adrian became obsessed when friends dragged him along to see the movie in 1982, he became an instant fan of Australian cinema. His obsession grew so much that he created three replicas of Max's Ford Falcon XB GT Interceptor, amazingly these were in Britain, more amazingly he shipped them to Australia.
Adrian is very proud of his museum, especially the fact that many of artifacts were donated by locals of Silverton and Broken Hill who starred as extras in the movie. In fact many locations in the area were used in the movie. The road leading to the Mundi Mundi Plains is where the final scene takes place, the opening is actually at the lookout overlooking the plains. The scene reading "Mundi Mundi Plains Lookout" can be seen in the movie. |
| I think this would be a little uncomfortable for the Long Ride. |
A number of people were visiting the museum and Adrian was keen to speak to all of them about the movie, he almost wet his pants when I said I was from the area where the first one was filmed and have even driven down 'Anarchy Road' (Anakie Road near Lara in Victoria). He explained why the producers made the first film there, I've got to admit I don't think Adrian has seen the area, it's a little different to what it really looks like. I must send him a photo of the Halls of Justice (Scienceworks in Spotswood).
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| Hmm another Beetle. |
Unfortunately it was now time to leave Silverton and start heading south, as we turned back onto Burke Street and headed towards Broken Hill I took one quick look back at the pub, I had the same feeling that I had almost 15 years earlier, the last time I left Silverton, I'd miss this place.
I had a slight chuckle when I looked and saw the Interceptors 'love child' ... the Beetle parked out the front of the pub. The legend says that one night the Mad Max Interceptor was drinking at the pub, got a little drunk and had it's way with one of Silverton's many Beetle's. The result was the 'love child'. I think one of my Beetle's bred too, and gave birth to a few more ... mum, dad, sorry about all of them taking up the driveway all those years ago.
Passing through Broken Hill, I couldn't help but think I had to come back, despite what I had heard (and seen) it's actually a beautiful town and obviously has a lot of money, from mining. It's unique in that the mines are right in the middle of town, well worth checking out some time.
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| A flat land with nothing but salt bush. |
The road south is the Silver City Highway and the landscape pretty uninspiring, mostly flat and covered in salt bush. A highlight was something Adrian had told us to look out for, three small peaks on the horizon just outside of Broken Hill. The middle one is where the compound in Mad Max II was filmed ... I could see why.
One thing that I did notice as we ventured further south was that the dry river beds were becoming deeper, suggesting that when the rivers were flowing the water was greater and stronger. It made sense as we were heading towards the Murray River, so the occasional rains had to flow to it some how.
The land further south was starting to show great life, and very definitely becoming greener. In amongst the great patches of green many wild goats were devouring what they could, we even saw a road train that was jam packed with goats obviously going to the slaughter. It's the first time I've looked at a cattle truck and didn't feel a sense of shame or sadness.
We eventually pulled into Mildura, a city that seems to be always green and lush as well as claiming to have more days of sunshine than that of the Gold Coast in Queensland.
The fact that Mildura is so green is that it sits on the Murray River at an area where other rivers run into it. I've heard it called the 'city that sits on the twin rivers'. With a population of around 30,000 Mildura was founded in the 1880's when irrigation was introduced to water the grazing lands that they many sheep farms used.
In the 1890's rabbits made their way to the Mildura region and pretty much destroyed the sheep industry overnight. This left the locals with no choice but to turn to grapes and citrus, and is now regarded as a world leader in both, thanks mostly to the immigrants who came to the region after World War II.
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| The Mercure's view of the twin rivers. |
Mildura is quite a nice city, it's not all stuck in the 1950's as Ross Noble would have you believe, although some areas do have beautiful art-deco buildings. There's an abundance of hotel and motels, we checked into the Mercure which was an older style building, a great feature was the heritage listed elevator, it still required you to pull the door closed yourself.
The Mercure's rooms were great, and had an interesting view, but I wasn't complaining the bed was massive and would ensure a great nights sleep, the Long Ride (drive) was quickly coming to an end.
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