Great Australian Railway Journeys "Sydney to Broken Hill" Series 01 E02

[Music] by 1913 Bradshaw's handbook to the chief cities of the world has brought me to Australia I will ride some of the longest trains and the world's steepest railway our prime blue mountains and cross red desert our swim above coral reefs and walk upon golden sands as I journey across this spectacular continent I'll discover the gold and silver coal and wool on which this nation was built I'll encounter her indigenous people and her national heroes and discover the origins of the millions of immigrants who now call themselves Australians [Music] the area of Australia says Bradshaw's is four-fifths out of Canada more than one for the whole British Empire nearly three-fourths Europe and more than 25 times the United Kingdom and yet Europeans discovered this vast landmass only relatively recently and under estimating its value used it as a dumping ground for criminals nonetheless the development of Australia in just 250 years has been phenomenal its area also compares with China's which has a population of 1.4 billion against Australia's 24 million which leads me to believe that the growth of Australia has scarcely begun [Music] starting in the Oceanside metropolis of Sydney I'll uncover the stories behind the icons of the city before striking west into the Blue Mountains I'll then push further into the interior of this vast country and travel five hundred and seventy miles to the mining city of Broken Hill [Music] along the way I'll ride on the world's steepest railway looks more like a roller coaster than a train [Music] get stuck in with the life-saving patrol on Bondi Beach and travel in style on the Transcontinental Indian Pacific Railway this is all part of my fantasy of living in another age [Music] Sydney the capital of New South Wales is the largest city in Australia and the principal commercial center of the South Pacific it's rateable value is greater than that of any other city in the British Empire other than London itself by the time of my guidebook the transportation of convicts to Australia had long since ended nonetheless the fact that Sydney was so large and indeed so elegant owed a lot to their initial hard labour [Music] Sydney was Britain's first colony in Australia it was founded in 1788 when Admiral Arthur Philip settled convicts who'd arrived on the first fleet at Sydney Cove the city quickly developed from a precarious beetle settlement into a thriving respectable town characterized by handsome architecture Sydney's Central Station and to tell you the truth I was underwhelmed by the platform's but this pong course is something different I love this iron roof and the stonework and the brickwork of the stained glass windows oh and the clocks which are very very lovely indeed many streets and landmarks in central Sydney bear the names of British monarchs and colonial administrators during the city's early history the best part of town says Bradshaw's consists of four or five streets running parallel with George Street George the third was the monarch at the time of the cook expedition and when the first convicts arrived it is a city of splendid buildings chiefly built of light brown sandstone this is the Queen Victoria buildings which of course bears the architectural mark of her reign by 1913 when my bradshaw's guidebook was published convicts were no longer being transported and immigrants to Sydney Australia's largest city were free settlers at Circular key I get my first glimpse of the Magnificent Sydney Harbour [Applause] bradshaw's tells me it's 14 miles in length and deep enough to hold all the navies of the world it's a natural marvel graced by the structures that flanked it to me this is one of the loveliest combinations on the planet of natural beauty and human artifice the dark a movable bridge was copied from one in New York City but the luminous white Opera House was like nothing that anyone had ever seen and it looks as though it might float or fly away at any moment and now the bridge has a new architectural feature across the top little moving bumps people climbing the bridge it said that the very best view of Sydney is from the top of what the locals call the coat hanger so where better to start my visit I need to take my courage in both hands I will shortly be attached to the bridge by this I have the utmost faith in Australian engineering and Inuit ash thank you you can hook that one up on your left now and that little ring oh there yeah perfect Natacha dirty is my guide to the bridges summit you've been doing this for a while yeah I've been here about a year and a half and I love it I come to work every day and I'm happy to be here it's incredible and you see how complicated Sydney is all the bays and harbors it is a city of water is it that's incredible Harbor traffic as well the pub is so busy yes I mean before the Harbour Bridge the only way to get from one side of the harbour to the other was by very long train trip or the ferries as early as 1815 the idea of a bridge to link the northern to the southern shore of the harbor was mooted but it was to take over a century to become a reality a design was agreed upon in 1912 when construction began in 1924 it took 1,400 men eight years to build and was pivotal in creating a modern connected city an Aboriginal flag and the flag of the Commonwealth of Australia with an amazing view of the engineering of this bridge with a sensational panorama of the city welcome to the summit so how many steps was that 1390 I felt every one of them yeah and we have reached a height where 134 metres above sea level which I must say is high enough weighing in at more than 50,000 tons Sydney Harbour Bridge is one of the largest steel arch bridges in the world and the views from the top are immense I can't resist a photo for the folks back home ready in three two one perfect I love that [Music] the Sydney that I'm looking at today is a very different prospect to the undeveloped wilderness that the first settlers saw nearly 250 years ago when they arrived by sea into this same Harbor the continent became known says Bradshaw's about 1717 when Captain Cook explored the East Coast and loaned it New South Wales for me traveling 24 hours by plane from Europe to Australia is an adventure but Cooke had been at sea for nearly two years when he landed here he was not the first European to explore this unknown continent but with his claiming and naming of New South Wales for the British crown the white man's epic in Australia began [Music] to uncover the story of those first explorers I'm off to darling harbour to board a replica of Captain Cook ship Endeavour and to meet Nigel earth ship from the Australian Maritime Museum Nigel way to cook land and how long did he stay he actually made land at Botany Bay and he was here for eight days and did he then just leave Australian no he spent several months then tracing his way up the east coast of Australia in its thanks to cook that we finally solved the riddle of know what does the east coast of Australia look like when cork sets sail he took with him secret orders from the British Admiralty to seek a continent or land of great extent and to claim it for Great Britain he succeeded on both counts and drew up surveys which stood as the main maps of Australia for almost a century these maps night or when do they take from so these are all copies of the originals made in 1770 this one is of stingray Bay or as it was later called botany bay because of all of the wonderful potential specimens collected in this particular very this one is the coastal chart showing endeavour reef where the vessel was wrecked they're very concerned we're not they're going to get off luckily they did and then this one's of the Endeavour River we can see here this is the camp where the crew lived under canvas when the vessel was being repaired he spent about six weeks here in the endeavour River and in those six weeks that they actually shot a kangaroo so the first depiction of the kangaroo was made there and also in those six weeks he struck up a relationship with the indigenous people here at endeavour River and we understand that that ultimately became a very positive relationship that first meeting was harmonious it was indeed yes relations with indigenous people may have started well but that wasn't to continue British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger sent the first convicts to Australia he had ambitions to expand British commerce throughout East Asia and the Pacific and Australia offered new opportunities New South Wales was first settled says Bradshaw's in January 1788 as a penal colony now it seems an awfully long way to come to do your porridge but the fact is that the men and women who helped to tame this hostile territory many of them were doing time I'm meeting Scott coming from Sydney living museums to find out more about the first fleet of settlers hello Scott Michael welcome to the hyde park barracks great to be here and what does this panorama tell us well it's a panorama from 1820 and it tells us what Sydney was like in this early colonial period of the convict story I'm amazed by how developed it is by 1820 because the Congress only arrived here in 1788 why was Britain sending convicts to Australia there was a backlog of convicts building up in Hawke's and no longer seaworthy vessels on the Thames and the convicts couldn't be sent as they had been to the colonies of the Americas because of the War of Independence there in 1788 when they first arrived here they were just surrounded by bush that would have seen the place as wilderness and recognizable to these people who come from Britain and Europe I take it that this is a somewhat idealized view of Sydney in 1820 but take me through what's going on here well idealized ideas you can see people getting along the buildings are all perfectly sorted there's work going on there's indigenous people Aboriginal people it's really depicting a sense of order in this city that was probably not the case [Music] the arrival of settlers led to violent conflict between two contrasting cultures indigenous people shared land and resources whereas the European incomers believed in private property and immediately began to create towns and cities the convicts then were put to work what as slave labor I wouldn't call them slave labor they worked for nothing they were put to work building the early city clearing ground they weren't slaves they were serving a period of penal servitude and after their seven-year sentence or their 14-year sentence they would be free men men and women there were convict women far fewer than the men and mostly put into domestic service situations assigned privately and how did it happen that you were able to design such beautiful buildings here in early New South Wales in a sense I think it's down to the conviction of a particular felon Francis Greenway who was an architect trained in Bristol he designs lots of buildings around town and the hyde park barracks is one of his great achievements well he's impressed me these barracks were built by convicts for convicts and commissioned by Sydney's governor to house men and boys in the curators office stop shows me the museum's prized artifact Oh an original convict shirt wear is superb so what's a date is that 1835 to 1848 probably we can't be certain but certainly it came out of this building and uncovered during an archaeological investigation in the 1980s and what does this artifact tell you about conditions it tells us that they were having to mend their clothes they were having to look after their issue this is government issue clothing they were issued two of these a year they were really responsible for maintaining and looking after these clothes and making them last were the convicts they would remain fairly clean well I would have thought not terribly they washed once a week on a Saturday that were required to and shaved on a Saturday and they would have washed their shirt they couldn't have hung it on a line to dry they would have had to wear it on their back to dry it so that somebody didn't steal it from them there was no honor amongst think like men slept densely packed together in rows of hammocks a yard apart Oh Michael here's your opportunity for a lay down in one of our hyde park barracks hammocks such an extraordinary number in one room or 70 in this room and 30 in the smaller rooms 200 a floor over three floors 600 men a night in hammocks the Hermits themselves are quite comfortable but to be so cheap biochar with hundreds of other people indeed and you've got to imagine the stench and they will noise and snoring and the crying out of Oh death awful there's no plumbing in the building so there's buckets around for night soil it would have been pretty high in here I would think once the convicts had served their time and if they'd behaved well they were given a ticket of leave which meant they could begin making a life for themselves people who probably would have found it very difficult will have so few opportunities back in Britain at this time that after their sentence had expired and they're done their time they opened businesses here they encouraged family to join them here eventually this became a place of significant opportunity every convict becomes a free man eventually even lifers so I think as many a convict must have said before me I'd rather be suspended in Australia and hanged in England [Music] by the time my bradshaw's was published the population of Sydney had reached 700,000 the city sprawled into surrounding areas and the suburbs were created [Music] one of the things that surprised me is how early in its existence Sydney became sophisticated and look at this beautiful Street this is no hick colonial architecture the real style here and real craftsmanship in this lacy ironwork and today these Victorian villas are being renovated helping to make Sydney impossibly chic the city's also home to some of the most creative cuisine in the world I'm looking forward to sampling its famous fusion food the idea is to combine different culinary flavors and traditions in a single dish Sydney's multicultural population and its openness to influences from Asia have led its chefs to blend diverse styles of cooking tastes the pork and squid ink sausages that is really nice that is purpose lovely happily East and West have met in my food bowl [Music] I'm up with the lock and heading to the eastern edge of the city [Music] I'm bound for one of Sydney's hundred-plus beaches along the Pacific coastline [Music] and I one of the most famous beach named in the world also has a railway Junction the kilometre long sweeping white sand crescent of Bondi Beach is a picture postcard location [Music] it's reliably big waves make it a magnet for surface Bondi Beach is the home of the body beautiful where people come to worship the sea the surf and I would say the self but the power of the tides and of the waves is greater than any ego and certain people volunteers selflessly to keep the waters safe [Music] I'm here to meet one such volunteer Cyril Bulldog with a lifetime member of the Bondi surf bathers Life Saving Club tamago here's the finest Bondi Beach yes what a magnificent stretch of sand it is I noticed that your club was founded in 1907 I'm just wondering how long before that did bathing at Bondi become respectable the Waverley council didn't allow um swimming or bathing during daylight hours until 1900 and five how extraordinary and did they seek to separate the genders no that wasn't necessary because no changes were team Olmec too many costumes in those days both male and female how long does it take for the surf culture to develop here upon day um it didn't take very long during 1906 a few young locals decided that a lot of people were getting into danger and I needed to do something to help that out so that's when they got together and formed this club and the surf culture just built from there because once it was safe to bay they came from everywhere the Bondi surf bathers Life Saving Club was the first in Australia 31 years after it was established the club hit the national headlines when tragedy struck exactly 80 years ago in February in 1938 and it's still known as black Sunday over 200 people got swept out to sea 200 people swept out you mean killed no five drown we saved 195 out of 200 Wow um how many volunteers are there rescuing we've got rain about three hundred and fiftieth and that's an oh yeah so as we look out now are they Club rescuers on duty today yes I yeah I'm so down here the tent where they're based the lifesavers were on duty during the summer months of October to April to do my bit I head down to the shore to join Dorie Miller and the crew hey Dori I'm Michael and see what what does this see look like on a day when you're worried about the safety of bathers there would be big waves sometimes massive waves and rips rips are our most dangerous thing to look out for on the beach on such a day when they're a big waves that those are days when people are out sometimes yes but on calm days like this it can also be very dangerous and people will have a sense of security and they don't actually know that they're in danger say you're vigilant all the time all the time and this venerable piece of equipment here what is that so this is a surf reel it's the original rescue device was invented by a bondi club member in 1907 and probably used up until the 80s we have this belt the rescuer would put the belt on swim out pick up the patient and they would be hold back to the beach that sounds pretty effective to me obviously you need a team to do it you need a team it is affected but it's exhausting oh I was about to volunteer I opted to stay safely on dry land as we try out the surf real during a practice rescue running to the beach we reel out 400 meters of cotton line which is going very fast yes it made contact okay reverse the process the drop line okay I get it Beach and with Ronnie at the beach quick pins [Music] we do all right we go with the patient sit up how you feeling oh but she's laid it she's made it [Music] 21st century life-saving technology has moved on considerably melinda Hartmann is a volunteer lifesaver good to see you today what do you do well today this is the evolution of life-saving superfast boats we can get out behind the waves in about 15 or 20 seconds we can cut across the bay in about a minute we can get a patient to shore in less than a minute gonna show me how it works exactly absolutely are you alright [Music] [Music] the club still performs some 300 rescues a year thanks to its brave members the 35,000 visitors each day to Bondi can swim and surf in safety hello Devon do I just stop you guys dissection I don't live in a city with a beach is it absolutely a central part of your life I was sitting with a beep oh definitely yeah I totally pulled out of a grave we're assuming today this was like oh my soul needs I'm back in central Sydney and before I embark on my journey into the vast interior of Australia I must explore the building that has done so much to put this city on the global map its Opera House I may have saved the best till last it's architect intended these steps to lead us from the ordinary life to an exceptional life and certainly his building has taken Australia to a higher plane [Music] I'm meeting up with Bruce Barnett for a guided tour Bruce Michael great to see right pleasure to welcome you here what of you I'm just thinking that few Architects in history could have had an opportunity like this to build on this site these architects more around the world had a competition and then this man from Denmark young Woodson quite young I'm 38 on the other side of the world doesn't know Sydney designs this he wins the competition and it's a blank canvas virtually an extraordinarily on the judges felt that Hudson's design had the potential to become one of the world's most important buildings whilst remaining sympathetic to its surroundings with the sail shape roof echoing those of passing vessels in Sydney Harbour I can't tear myself away from the theater but on the other hand I've see the console totally let's go and start never look Thanks the Opera House has two main concert halls and four smaller spaces for more intimate performances Oh Bruce absolutely this is Danny but I've been in the Opera House before but never in this auditorium what is this well this is called the concert hall this is the biggest theatre for the big concerts orchestras pop rock the creation of this great building was far from plain sailing Woodson's design was an ambitious feat of Engineering the complicated roof led to costly delays and boots on was criticized heavily by the Australian government of the day he was forced to resign in 1966 a change of government a lot of controversy it's going way over time and over budget so then this sits empty for a while before the interiors in design but wouldn't you say there are certain buildings I mean you know maybe starting with the pyramids mhm that eventually when they're finished you don't quibble about the cost you don't quibble about how long we took that we're just magnificent I'm quite certain that day is over and all those people who were the naysayers four years or something I always thought was gonna be wonderful and of course it was described as the building of the 20th century it is a world icon apparently the most recognized building in the world Sidney Saunders are very proud of this place the building that changed the image of a nation as something we say about and it did it wasn't just about meat pies football and beer and surfing it was suddenly all you've got culture as well Olson didn't attend the opening of the Opera House in 1973 but it's vision and genius endure in Sydney Harbour for the world to admire [Music] my time in Sydney is up but the excitement is far from over I'm leaving the city behind and heading west into the Blue Mountains unliving Sydney for the delightfully named koo kumba which Bradshaw's tells me is the chief station for the well-known blue mountains resorts the gorges and waterfalls of the Blue Mountains at the elevation of over 3,000 feet are 60 miles west of the metropolis and provide a complete change of climate and scenery are the cost of a couple of hours train journey well it still takes two hours today and is costing me less than seven dollars so it seems to me that both the speed and the price have been frozen in time [Music] the Blue Mountains are an imposing presence they cover an area of four thousand four hundred and forty square miles and the highest peak measures four thousand feet up until 1813 the blue mountains presented an impassable frontier to early settlers in New South Wales [Music] they were intrigued as to what lay behind the range but no explorers had succeeded in crossing it to learn about the first expeditions I'm meeting up with education Ranger Jamie Sullivan I mean really Jamie just look at that isn't it amazing truly his world class now my guidebook which is dated nineteen thirteen tells me that after the first settlement of New South Wales every Explorer of the interior of the country had failed to cross the Blue Mountains down to 1813 but then Wentworth Lawson and Blaxland succeeded what's that about so that was Gregory Blaxland William Lawson William Wentworth quite well-to-do guys they had put together a huge expedition and they did one thing that the rest of the Explorers never did I followed the ridge tops and made it across the mountains not trying to go in a straight line like some of the older explorers the failed explorers we even had one guy try and make it up this valley his mission was to get to Round Mountain in the distance and he went down a valley upper valley down about up the valley down the valley up the valley and they just got steeper and bigger and bigger and he didn't even make it close the three explorers 58 mile route took 21 days to complete and established a trail through the mountain range for other settlers to follow so Lawson Blaxland and Whitworth were the first three Europeans to cross the Blue Mountains were they they weren't actually there was one Explorer my favorite Explorer Joe Wilson he's made it across to the mountains he did one thing that the other explorers didn't do he went and we lived with the aboriginals he actually went and joined a tribe when he returned he came back with some scars so he'd been initiated being an ex-convict no one believed his stories because of his status in society so you are putting the record straight and you're telling me that my guidebook is wrong and that Wilson was the first Wilson was the first why were these European settlers so keen to get beyond the Blue Mountains so Australia is almost 4,000 kilometers east to west from the east in Sydney in 30 years that only ever made at 50 kilometers from the coastline they actually needed to see what was in the interior running out of room quite fast in Sydney and being sandstone country it's not good farming country did they succeed in that did they find pasture do they find land where they could grow crops my word they did as soon as you crossed the Blue Mountains into farmland and that continues for hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of farmland [Music] crossing the Blue Mountains opened up the interior of Australia to European colonists but this territory had been inhabited and worked for millennia by Aboriginal people so when settlers encroached hostilities between the two communities broke out and there was bloodshed [Music] to help me understand the indigenous people's relationship with this area I'm meeting up with ya Mandira a national parks ranger yum dear what kind of indigenous peoples lived here in the Blue Mountains many different types of indigenous peoples the local people with the direct people begun and go up from the lower valleys and up to six different language groups but many many different claims within them language groups what's of life did they lead in the Blue Mountains I think of beautiful spending life a life full of sustainability a life of living at one with the environment living at one with each other also presumably of course the Blue Mountains represented there kind of barrier to the indigenous people we think about the European explorers having to overcome these mountains but for the indigenous people they were a natural living environment good point Michael my people land and in local indigenous people they have a connection always had a connection to this to these mountains and they maintain the connection that attachment to the country which sustains them remains fundamental to the indigenous cultures who live in the Blue Mountains today brought down here we've got some of the boulders paint in the world brother this is the Oh loca comes from the country the local country so the purpose is to connect you with their country thank you my brother thank you I'm very very honored big difference between Western culture and my indigenous culture we don't believe we can sit on top of the country nor all top of the food chain we believe we are part of it do you mind if I add one more factor to the ceremony please de Bella I'd like to stand for a moment and just appreciate the country as well thank you isn't it astonishing now that's a celebration for years as the settlers incursion into the Blue Mountains gathered momentum they began to exploit the land for its fuel sources I'm heading back to Kitumba for a trip on what was once a coal train this railway was built by a collaring but even in those old days before the Second World War the owners used to charge people sixpence for a ride why would they want to do that well because it is the steepest railway in the world and it has the most amazing views the railway was built in the 1880s to transport coal and kerosene shale mined in the depths of the jamison valley to the escarpment above in the 1920s businessman realized its potential as a tourist attraction and fitted seats in some of the coal trucks so that it could be used for sightseers of weekends nowadays it's purely for thrill-seekers and reassuringly the carriages have been upgraded front to be a sort of gauze or mosquito net and a head what looks more like a rollercoaster than a train and down we go reaching 52 degrees of angle or 128 percent getting steeper again a breathtaking run but the whole thing barsa hundred and twenty-five seconds [Music] well I have no doubt that the claim to be the world's steepest railway is absolutely right [Music] [Music] I've returned to Sydney Central Station to embark on the final leg of this journey I'm heading west deep into Australia's interior the 1502 to Perth is the train that hides its light under a bushel this is the famous Indian Pacific and to Perth it's more than 4,000 kilometres it's just the fourth stop that means every stop is more than a thousand kilometres apart I'm headed to Broken Hill to the outback [Music] a long journey warrants a long train the Indian Pacific is an incredible 711 meters long so it has to be split in half to fit onto the platforms and then join up on departure [Music] oh thank you my word this is absolutely huge the size in this bed I don't know where to sit that's it here I sit there so what do I have here we just popped your luggage in here already full oh thank you and we've just popped your book down here for a very important part of our journey of that is this just through here is your on suede well I think I've got a light spray good enough to hang my hat thank you so much [Applause] [Music] good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome aboard the Indian Pacific my name is Deb Mullin I'm your train manager on our journey through to Adelaide tomorrow afternoon we hope you enjoy the time you have on board with us if you have any questions throughout the journey please don't hesitate to ask me or any of our friendly lieutenants no comment so this is an extraordinary journey isn't it and you must see a lot of people excited by making that journey I certainly do a lot of saved a long time to come and travel on our train and travel across the continent what is it been playing special about this place I think it's the romance of train travel to travel across the continent is something really special I don't think there's any better way to see a country than by train you [Music] passengers traveling all the way from Sydney to Perth will be aboard for four days my journey to Broken Hill is a mere 15 hours so I think I'll make the most of it and relax with my fellow passengers would you mind white wine your moment well first of all are you enjoy where you go what made you think of this journey just something different instead of flying and you've never done this trick before we did many years ago but we did it on the cheese when we sat up all the way we didn't have a carriage we get to lie down in a bed tonight now where are you from holiday you're not resident holidaying what made you take in diversity I always wanted to do the train journey we haven't been to Australia for 25 years and we wanted to do something a bit different is it living up to our expectations so far very enjoyable how are you well only 24 hours yeah and have you done that great railway adventures before yourself no unless you count the London Underground trying to get to work this is even more assuming yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] before 1970 passengers traveling from Sydney to Perth would have had to change trains five or six times because the rail gauges were different across the continent now they've been standardized and the journey can be completed on one train [Music] while the dining room is absolutely exquisite this is all part of my fantasy of living in another age Bon Appetit everybody [Music] this is one of my favorite moments the evening the long shadows the vastness of the continent a train moving gently across it and a jolly good steak [Music] well after that splendid dinner I'm trying to sleep very well I find that nothing induces sleep quite as much therefore really are actual [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] bye bye dad safe journey thank you after a five hundred and seventy mile journey through the night I've arrived at my destination deep in the parched outback [Music] as European settlers push further into the interior they discover Australia's rich mineral deposits Broken Hills mining wealth but this isolated outpost on the international map [Music] Margeaux white was born and bred in Broken Hill how did Broken Hills start Brennan who started in 1883 with the discovery of minerals they weren't quite sure what it was but a German immigrant from Stuttgart had a bit of knowledge of science so he saw this very very dark black hill and it intrigued him so he thought I'll investigate that and the analysis was it was a very high grade of silver what's that got a silver rush no not really because of our isolation 700 miles from Sydney 300 from Adelaide no roads so in 1883 they started mining then finally after about two years of digging a lot of dirt the discovery was really made the town must have grown pretty quickly because my 1913 guidebook tells me that it's a town of 31,000 people that's correct shortly after that it increased to 35,000 do you come from a mining family I certainly do both sides my father's parents came here in about 1890 so I'm third generation and I have two generations below me since five generations in Broken Hill what stories did you hear about the mining from your family lots of stories from my dad he was an underground Timberman he always had stories to tell a lot of stories about mate ship friendships of the men that they worked with because there was a bond to trust that they looked after each other if ever there was a an incident underground but he was lucky he escaped any serious injury and had a healthy set of lungs and died at the age of 87 so he had a good life does Broken Hills still depend on mining yes it certainly does it's the only real industry in here [Music] to get an idea of a miners life in the days of Margo's grandfather and taking a short drive to the daydream mine at Silverton to meet guide Jason White [Music] Jason I'm Michael la might good to see you so daydream mine when was that setup first discovered in 1981 and the bloke who actually found it was a bloke called Jamie she was a prospector used to walk through here and number of months later they formed the Barry range of silver mining association and then it will become a mine in September 1894 did it do well as a mine in the first year of prophethood one hundred thousand pounds a hundred thousand pounds worth of profit that was a slight expenditures out of it as well so there's quite a lot of money in them those so they were doing pretty well silver mining gave a much-needed boost to the region's economy and it's dominated Broken Hill ever since stand up straight well in place you can so what form did the silver coming basically come in the same which is where you can see all the pack stone walls I've been through them on yes that's where the syllable was they've come through him and all that air and how pure is that silver up to eighteen thousand ounces of silver per ton is that pure to give you an idea that Broken Hill now currently runs up to two to four ounces a ton Wow so it was incredibly pure so mostly all you'd have is one bloke holding on to a chisel two blokes one night solve with a sledgehammer each and I'm doing that yep so as you can imagine if you've got your hands there how easy it was to lose multiple fingers and hands grim what were conditions like them for men working down here vice versa say an old old bloke was 3035 years nice to say within two and a half years of a shaft sinker which was the bloke singing the verdict walls though mostly coughing blood boil that stage because of what mostly the market which is all sparkly see throughout there a ceilings of the walls it's like asbestos it gets in your lungs and just cut some the pieces how do they treat it only the workers of the company will give an open the contractors weren't given I pin Alan at least to say drink large sums of whiskey what did the opium do to you basically relaxed lungs so that you weren't the wasn't the one wasn't white feet and coughed the blood out of it and so you could you wait longer many deaths resulted from the poor conditions in Broken Hill - fought for change and bitter and protracted strikes occurred during the early 20th century the struggles led to improved health and safety for miners and for the first time in Australia a 35 hour working week Broken Hill was famed as a bastion of trade unionism the city has created a memorial to the miners who lost their lives [Music] high up on a slack key and dominating Broken Hill is this impressive monument to more than 800 miners who died at work electrocuted run over killed by a rock for if the history of mining here had a silver lining it certainly also had a black cloud [Music] while Broken Hills primary industry is still mining the city looks to the future and to exploiting another natural resource [Applause] the next phase of industrial growth here will come from harnessing the sun's rays I've arranged to meet project manager Adam Majid Adams statement of the obvious it is sunny here how sunny is it to give you a bit of an idea there's only 250 mils of Ryan in Broken Hill so it's days like this glorious days all the time so this is sunny even by Australian standards from world tens this is an exceptional sight and so that's what we've picked this location what caliber have you got here 140 hectares I hope you're trying to sound 140 hectares is way the size is about 75 times the Sydney Cricket Ground so it's an amazing bit of infrastructure where does this go to effectively the Burke neo solid plan he's powering Broken Hill so we produced enough power for over 20,000 homes and that's the average energy used for the whole year so it's a lot of generation 126 thousand megawatt hours and that power is not only used by the homes in Broken Hill but also by the industry this needed subsidy and some consumers have complained about the prices they're paying i mean firstly is that fair and secondly will it change with time I think the Broken Arrow solar project was one of the first large-scale projects in Australia I think what we will see and it's my kids will start to benefit from this is it due to the low maintenance costs you know the fuels for free the maintenance is very low that'll be the real benefit in the time of these type of technology do you think your children then will look at this and say goodness that was tiny absolutely I think in years to come this type of technology will get used a lot more widely especially in a place like Australia we've got a lot of Sun we've got a lot of land so I would expect to see a lot more and we already are this heat scorched isolated Outback City must live from exploiting natural resources in the future as in the past here near Broken Hill Australia began to grow rich from what had seemed an unpromising start a penal colony at Sydney New South Wales colonists had pushed through the Blue Mountains to uncover the mineral wealth that was buried here in the process the Aboriginal population suffered a momentous decline modern-day Australians acknowledge that tragedy and remember that long before the arrival of the Europeans first fleet these lands had been cared for by indigenous people [Music] next time I'll marvel of the nation's riches what would they be worth do you think probably just shy of two million dollars see why fandoms traverse the desert in style explorers perish crossing this plane today it's a little easier and take a gamble in the outback [Applause] [Music] tomorrow at nine simon Reeve joins the u.s. Border Patrol in Texas and travels through the Mexican city and a sway of a drugs cartel we're next in the Americas and next tonight here on bbc2 Sandi Toksvig Allen Davis Josh Widdicombe Holly wash and carryout Lloyd make it a quintessential Qi XL you

Channel: JOURNEYS

Views: 167,024

Rating: 4.8414793 out of 5

Keywords: Great Australian Railway Journeys, MichealPortillo, Sydney, Broken Hill, Australia

Id: C6sV9k5S3XY

Length: 58min 55sec (3535 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 17 2020