Broken Hill is Australia’s very first Heritage Listed city. This great honour was bestowed on the city in 2015. It is a place with many stories to tell.

Broken Hill is often considered the quintessential outback town with its warm hospitality, rich heritage, wide streets and pubs in grand old buildings, not to mention the remarkable aesthetic that surrounds the city. It is a unique and remote city under a wide-open sky offering a charming combination of grand buildings and ramshackle miners’ huts.

The city is the largest regional outback centre in Western New South Wales. It lies closest to the South Australian border (it even runs on South Australian time rather than following the clocks of New South Wales).

It has often been described as the ‘Capital of the Outback’ or ‘The Silver City’ – the latter for its long association with mining, specifically silver and mineral deposits. Mining in Broken Hill has been essential to Australia’s development as a nation.

Broken Hill is famous for its mining and is one of the world’s richest deposits in silver, lead and zinc.

It is also home to a rare volume of minerals and has been described as a ‘mineralogical rainforest’ with close to 300 mineral varieties. This mineral diversity enables us to learn so much about earth’s history. The natural geographic significance of this region cannot be understated.

The city also boasts many bold pioneers in various fields and passionate social activists too. Broken Hill has a long history in unionism and is even responsible for the creation of the eight-hour working day!

Broken Hill’s rich and diverse outback landscape has inspired many a talented artist, photographer and film maker over the years. The vibrant artistic community of Broken Hill has long been recognised and the city’s art gallery is the oldest regional art gallery in the state. Even the historic building (Sully’s Emporium) in which the art gallery is housed has won numerous heritage awards for restoration and refurbishment. Broken Hill is also home to The Brushmen of the Bush, a wonderful group of five gifted Australian artists (Pro Hart, Eric Minchin, High Schulz, John Pickup and Jack Absalom) with very diverse backgrounds whom, in the early 1970s, formed a collective to showcase their artwork. They took this work, celebrating the beauty of the Aussie outback, to the world whilst also raising significant funds for charities through their exhibitions.

In addition to the art gallery, another worthy stop is the Sturt Park Reserve and Titanic Memorial.

Named after the British explorer who led several Australian expeditions, the park also has a memorial dedicated to the brave bandsmen aboard the Titanic. These courageous musicians continued to play in the hope of calming the guests even as the devastating events unfolded. For those keen to learn more, there is also a Titanic Collection at the Synagogue of the Outback Museum in Wolfram Street. This Jewish Museum is one of most remote Jewish museum in the world and represents the vibrant and successful Jewish community that existed in Broken Hill between the 1880s and 1960s (and whose origins lays in Poland, Russia, Lithuania and the Ukraine).

Sturt Park also has a large, grassed area, beautiful gardens, a skate park, a fenced adventure playground for children and covered picnic area with tables, chairs and gas barbecues.

Broken Hill is a fascinating city with much to offer and we warmly encourage you to venture out and about to take it all in whilst enjoying your stay at The Argent.