We had a bit of rain overnight and as we drove into the Broken Hill city centre to visit The Big Picture at the Silver City Art Centre and Mint, the rain had settled in. It was accompanied by some hail as well as thunder.

The Big Picture is a 100m long by 12m high painting on canvas displayed in a circular shape . You enter through one side via a boardwalk which takes you to a viewing platform at the centre so you are surrounded by the painting. It was painted by Peter 'Ando' Anderson over a two year period and remarkably used 9 tonne of acrylic paint! The painting features natural and man made landmarks within 300km of Broken Hill, including the Sculpture Symposium, the Pinnacles, Flinders Ranges, Mundi Mundi Plains, the Barrier Ranges, White Cliffs, Mutawintji, Menindee Lakes and Broken Hill and the Line of Lode.

It was certainly very impressive, giving the feel you were standing in the outback and today's rain falling on the roof added an extra dimension to the experience.

We then drove to Silverton, some 22km NW of Broken Hill. What characterises this road is the 39 dips that are a feature of the road, put in to mitigate flooding that apparently can occur quite quickly. They make for a lumpy, bumpy ride!

In the late 1800s it was a bustling home to 3,000 people, but residents began to leave in the 1880s when the nearby mines of Broken Hill surfaced . These days less than 50 people call Silverton home, with only a handful of buildings dotting the landscape and the area is probably more recognised as the scene for many movies, notably Mad Max. So it's not surprising that Silverton is home of the Mad Max Museum, although not being a fan, we didn't go inside. However next door was the Silverton Tea Rooms, which also houses various collectables for sale and a doll collection which is not. We had a nice lunch there prepared by an ex-shearers' cook and the displays were quite interesting, particularly the bottles.

The Silverton school which closed in 1970 is now a museum containing many items reflecting Silverton's past. It was here we read that Dame Mary Jean Gilmore (1865-1962) was appointed in October 1887 as temporary assistant at the school and she remained there until December 1889. She became a writer of note and it is said her writing was influenced by her friendship with Henry Lawson. She campaigned for better working conditions for working women, for children's welfare and for a better deal for indigenous Australians, and her image appears on the $10 note .

The former gaol is also a museum, housing artefacts relating to the early days of Silverton. From the entrance we didn't expect a lot, but once inside it was like a rabbit warren, with more and more rooms, some of which were originally the cells, housing themed displays. What struck us was how quickly the place must have developed and became almost a ghost town as quickly once mining activity moved to Broken Hill.

Returning to Broken Hill we drove out to the Sculptures. The Sculptures are a result of a Symposium held during April and May 1983, when some 12 sculptors from all parts of the world came to the site to create unique sculptures from sandstone from nearby Wilcannia. The Sculptures are atop a hill adjacent to the Living Desert Sanctuary and make a very spectacular sight when viewed late in the day as the sun is setting. Our favourite was Horse by Jumber Jikiya from Rustavi, Georgia.

So with the sun setting it was back to the caravan park and a dinner of chicken in pastry parcels (cooked on the Weber) with steamed vegetables.