Locals are invited to hear a talk from the author of Outside Mines of the Broken Hill Area, Geoffrey Randall, at the Broken Hill City Library on Thursday August 11.
Mr Randall hopes people will come along if they are interested in the district and the abandoned mine settlements within a 50 or 80 km radius from Broken Hill.
Mr Randall worked in Burra Copper Mine in the 1970s and he and his wife Jeanine became interested in minerals and restoring mining cottages.
The couple have been amateur mineral and fossil collectors for 50 years, a passion bringing them to Broken Hill many times.
Mr Randall said the reason for writing the book was on many of his trips to Broken Hill, he asked about the old mining settlements within an 80 km radius of Broken Hill and found there wasn’t a lot of information recorded.
There are about 12-14 abandoned settlements surround Broken Hill, with nine of these to the north of Broken Hill.
With the help of local people such as the White family involved in the Daydream mine, David Glows, Brian Woods and Trevor Dart, he recorded the abandoned mine settlements’ history.
Peter Hannah in William Street also helped.
“Mr Hannah did a tremendous amount of work in Thackaringa,” Mr Randall said.
This research resulted in the book, Outside Mines of the Broken Hill Area.
The book gives a brief account of each abandoned mine outside of Broken Hill.
Mr Randall covers their mineral deposits, early photos, artefacts, working conditions of the miners, death and injury rates and some social history about how the early communities dealt with these primitive conditions.
He has also written short histories of the Flinders Ranges Mines.
There will be a question and answer session at the end of his talk.
This free event is between 5:30pm and 6:30pm and includes light refreshments.
