The story of this place
On 5 September 1883, a boundary rider named Charles Rasp pegged out a mining lease on a 'mullock heap' — a dry, low hill in far west New South Wales. He thought it might contain tin. It contained something far more valuable: the world's largest known silver-lead-zinc lode, stretching 7 kilometres underground and 100 metres wide. The company formed to mine it — the Broken Hill Proprietary Company — became BHP, today one of the world's largest resource companies.
Broken Hill became a crucible of the Australian labour movement. The 1919-20 strike, known as 'The Big Strike,' lasted 18 months — the longest industrial dispute in Australian history — and eventually won miners the 35-hour work week. The city developed its own time zone (half an hour behind NSW standard time), its own radio network, and its own hospital system funded by a levy on miners' wages — decades before Medicare. Broken Hill is now a UNESCO-listed mining heritage city and a magnet for artists drawn to its unique light and landscape.