Weekend Sunrise – in collaboration with Destination NSW – visited Broken Hill and Silverton this past weekend, with weather presenter James Tobin featuring various businesses throughout the Far West and enjoying the rich array of experiences the region has to offer.
Across a few days in the area, the program featured iconic businesses such as Silverton Outback Camels, The Palace Hotel, Bells Milk Bar, Silverton Hotel, Silverton Bakery, and the Jon Dynon Art Gallery. The crew also went to the Mutawintji National Park outside of the early morning live broadcasts.
Speaking to the Barrier Truth, Mr Tobin said he was “so stoked to be in this part of Australia”, reflecting on the people who make trips like these so memorable for people in his profession.
“The best part of my job is getting into places like outback New South Wales. I’m really lucky to go to a lot of Australia but getting west and a place like Broken Hill and Silverton where you’ve just got this incredible history, this great community, this red dirt, it’s been amazing and we’re getting to experience so much of it,” he said.
“There’s just so many parts to Broken Hill, so many facets and so many interesting places. But I think the best are the people. It’s the locals. the best are the locals. We’ve just had such a warm welcome, everyone has been the first to say, ‘G’day’, ‘welcome’, have a chat, ask us why we’re here, tell us about their situation.”
Bells Milk Bar owner Matt Spressor told us “It feels great for the community getting Destination NSW and Sunrise out”, as he hopes the spot on the breakfast program has benefits for the town.
“It’s exposure for the community, not just us. I mean, it’s exposure for us – we’re trying to get Bells back out there and spread the word – but it’s been a lot of fun and hopefully more people come out to Broken Hill, come and visit us”, he said.
Petah Devine, owner of Silverton Outback Camels – who walked the seven-hour journey from Silverton to Broken Hill with her team and a caravan of camels to be featured in the program –, told us the business already has received phone calls for upcoming bookings and camel rides from all over Australia.
“The walk in and walk home was positive for us because everyone saw us with the camels and was pretty impressed on how far we walked and the effort we went to but overall, everyone was pretty impressed with how cute our baby camel Yullala was and how well-behaved the camels were. We’ve had a lot of people comment that they saw us on Sunrise and they can’t wait to get out to Silverton to do a camel ride,” she said.
“We had a good crowd turn up, a few followers and that a few people that had seen us on the walk came down and some people that have done a camel ride came down and saw us. It was pretty positive to have people that have met us before coming down to see us there early in the morning, it was very good.”
Esther La Rovere, Managing Director of The Palace Hotel, said her business “is always happy to be included in any events that are helping promote our city [with] a very colourful and interesting building that we love for everyone to be able to come and see when they see our fabulous city”.
“We were invited by Destination NSW as part of this fantastic marketing campaign they’ve got about bringing people out to Broken Hill in the region at the moment. We’re very happy that we could help and have the lovely Christina KneesUp here come bring her sparkle and try and jam as much information as you can into those few minutes of coverage.”
