There’s not only indoor art in galleries in Broken Hill; the city is full of public murals and outdoor sculpture. Pick up the Broken Hill Art Trail fold-out poster ($2), which has colour photographs and maps, from the Broken Hill City Art Gallery.
Broken Hill’s artistic side is perhaps best expressed at the Broken Hill City Art Gallery (Mon–Fri 10am–5pm, Sat & Sun 1–5pm; $3), in the Entertainment Centre on Chloride Street, where there’s an excellent representative collection of artists from Broken Hill. Established in 1904, it’s the second-oldest gallery in the state – after the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney – with a small collection of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century paintings.
Pro Hart’s Gallery, at 108 Wyman St (Mon–Sat 9am–12.30pm & 1.30–5pm, Sun 1.30–5pm; $4), should also be visited. Pro Hart is a former Broken Hill miner turned artist and national celebrity who claims that his only artistic influences were the colours and subjects he saw on his family’s sheep station where he grew up, which he then turned into illustrations that decorated his correspondence lessons. His trademark humorous Outback scenes depict events such as race meetings or backyard barbecues, all featuring lively figures in a caricature style. The gallery’s three cramped levels are said to hold the largest private art collection in Australia, with a truly astounding collection of the artist’s own work as well as works by other Australian painters – Tom Roberts, Sidney Nolan and Albert Namatjira among them – although not necessarily their best. A collection of sculptures done by Hart are in a lot across the road – you can check them out for free. Also in the city centre are the Ant Hill Gallery, at 24 Bromide St (Mon–Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 1.30–5pm), just opposite the tourist centre, and the Art of Broken Hill Gallery, at 219 Argent St (Mon–Fri 10am–6pm, Sat 10am–1pm, Sun 1–5pm); both display a variety of local artists’ works, while the Ant Hill Gallery is the only place in Broken Hill where you can buy Pro Hart’s paintings.
Community-based Wiimpatja Wana Aboriginal Crafts, 84 Oxide St (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm), is the most interesting of the crafts outlets, with a workshop out back where you can watch the artists at work between 9am and 3.30pm making traditional wooden tools, weapons and musical instruments. Wood is gathered (not felled) from as far afield as Wilcannia, and each type has a specific purpose: didgeridoos are made from sections of mallee gums eaten hollow by termites, clapping sticks and nulla nullas are made from mulga, bowls from burls of river red gums, carved snakes from small mulga roots gathered from riverbanks, and brooches from prickly wattle or “purple wood”.
Six kilometres out of town, the Sculpture Symposium in The Living Desert Reserve is the most stunning of Broken Hill’s art exhibits, a reserve in the eroded Barrier Ranges desert region that is the location of a group of sculptures carved from Wilcannia sandstone boulders. The twelve artists involved in their creation were part of a sculpture symposium in 1993 and were drawn from diverse cultures – two from Mexico (including an Aztec Indian), two from Syria, three from Georgia (in the Caucasus), and five Australians, including two Bathurst Islanders – and this is reflected in the variety of their works. The pieces from the Georgian artists are particularly fine: Badri Sulushia’s Outback Madonna and Child; Valerian Jiiya’s Cubist interpretation; and Jumber Jikiya’s horse’s head, a tribute to the rare breed of Georgian horses slaughtered under Stalin’s orders. Nastra Luna of Mexico badly injured his hands and his piece became a collective effort, depicting a soaring eagle, with the hands of the other sculptors who helped him imprinted in the rock. The Aboriginal artist Badger Bates, from Broken Hill, was inspired by the stone carvings of his ancestors, and his piece shows two rainbow serpents travelling north. The best time to visit the sculptures is at sunset when the light is magical and you can really soak up the atmosphere. It’s a pleasant fifteen-minute walk up the hill from the car park to the sculptures; you can also drive right up, but because of unfortunate bouts of vandalism in the past you must first go to the tourist information centre in town, get a key to the gate ($10 deposit) and pay $5 per car. A $1 information brochure about the sculptures is available from the tourist office.