BROKEN HILL — A recent Sydney Sunday paper quoted the mayor of Broken Hill, Peter Black, as saying that what country towns needed were ideas based on "fair dinkum lateral thinking". Intrigued by this, Green left Weekly's STEPHEN O'BRIEN asked Black to elaborate.
Broken Hill faces hard times. This is despite its location around what Black maintains is still the richest lode of silver, lead and zinc in the world.
"Judge Fisher was the start of it", according to Black, referring to the NSW arbitration court judge who found in favour of the mining companies in a crucial case in 1986. Then, 4600 waged employees worked on the Broken Hill "line of lode". Now, with rationalisation and the introduction of machines such as the "retrencher" (each of which does 28 miners out of a job), the total mining work force has been cut to 1300.
"Being basically an industrial city in the middle of nowhere", Broken Hill has had to respond with what Black calls "fair dinkum lateral thinking".
He is critical of government attitudes to local problems and initiatives, and he jokes that only a bulldozer put through the Blue Mountains would make NSW governments, of either persuasion, see further west than Sydney.
Population estimates, used to plan the provision of government services, are one example of this myopia, according to Black.
"In 1990, the government projected that only 14,000 people would live in Broken Hill by the year 2000. As this figure was obviously ill considered, the council protested; the estimate was subsequently adjusted to a more realistic 25,000. In 1981, Broken Hill had 28,600 people; from the 24,000 or so we have now, we expect a slight growth rather than a drastic decrease."
Despite the projected growth and the region's geographic isolation, public transport services to Broken Hill have already been reduced. "The State Rail Authority has been decimated here. We have lost the Silver City Comet [the train to Sydney] and the Bud Car [which ran to Adelaide]".
As well as this, "The Road Transport Authority has been cut back severely, and government services essential for a city the size of Broken Hill have been transferred to Dubbo", 12 hours away by road. "We have also lost government offices, such as the Parks and Wildlife Service and our nurse education college."
In an effort to halt this trend, Black raised a number of ideas which go well beyond the giant banana, merino and peanut approach prevalent among councils on the eastern seaboard.
Ecotourism
"We are going flat out on tourism", he said. "Currently the same number of people are employed in tourism-related industries as are employed in the mines."
Black is encouraging ecotourism; he pointed out that although 90% of NSW is arid, the state doesn't have an arid zone environmental centre.
"We would like such a centre in Broken Hill on the North Common", he said. "It could have basic camp-style accommodation as well as facilities and laboratories for the use of high school students and university groups." Broken Hill learned very early about the need to conserve local flora; by the 1930s it had already created regeneration reserves, which now encircle the city.
Black also believes that permaculture agriculture attuned to Broken Hill's arid environment is a feasible option. Permaculture involves an organic approach to agriculture balanced with the local ecosystem.
One example of an ecological and commercially sustainable harvest is saltbush seed. As well as being drought resistant, local natives such as salt bush and blue bush are being used to address water logging and salinity problems in the black soil country around Murrell Creek in NSW. Black referred me to a recent publication called Plants of Western NSW for an indication of the genetic wealth of the region's plant life.
He is scathing about the misuse of the local environment, particularly the Darling River, which supplies a lot of the city's water.
A century ago, the far western townships of Wilcannia and Menindee were river ports for paddle steamers. The Darling River "has now been pretty well irreversibly stuffed", according to the mayor.
"Far too many phosphates have been put in and too much water taken out by inappropriate crops upstream, especially cotton." He added that the Darling is treated like a big sewer that has not been flushed. For instance, following recent rains in Queensland, only 100 megalitres of the 1 million megalitres running down from tributaries will flow into the Darling.
Among the job creation projects mentioned by Black is the proposal to establish a business enterprise centre in the old Wills Street Power Station.
"We will provide the space and the office staff for anyone who has an idea. Solar energy, for example, could be one possibility. Thirty years ago, pioneering work in solar energy, which took advantage of the very high proportion of sunny days, was done here."
Living museum
Broken Hill's living museum approach to tourism takes advantage of the city's unique union and mining heritage. Visitors to the Tourist Centre, for example, are greeted by a life-size statue of Tom Mann, the famous English socialist who delivers a fiery speech about capitalist injustice, the shorter working week and class struggle. Mann was a leader of the 1908 miners' strike, one of many industrial battles in the city.
Historic buildings, such as the Barrier Industrial Council Trades Hall (known by some locals as the "Kremlin"), are well maintained, with street plaques and wall murals explaining and illustrating the history of the city.
Black was keen I visit the Geo-centre, an interactive display and celebration of 111 years of mining and metallurgy on the line of lode. He says a planned mining and mineral museum will make the Stockman Hall of Fame at Longreach "look like a cake stall".
Broken Hill is not without its social problems. A few days before our interview, a local action group had held a demonstration in the main street to protest against domestic violence.
However, the city shows considerable resolve. As we concluded our talk, Mayor Black was off to attend to another battle — this time to keep the city's power generation facilities under democratic and accountable local control.