Broken Hill - The Arrival

That's comforting. Because I'm here to get lead poisoning

University has graced me with many adversities in three years. Poor subject recommendations, timetable changes and clashes, unfavourable exam times, knowledge, and field trips. This field trip was timed to prevent me from competing at Uni Games, expose me to absurd amounts of lead dust, and cost me a shit tonne of money. Will it be a positive experience? Does Australia not really suck? Are Broken Hillites suffering from a loss cognitive function due to lead dust?



The Train Trip

So I'm waking up at 430am to catch a train at Eastwood station at 528am to catch another train at Central at 620am. I woke up an hour early because I had to pack my bag and then walk 1.3km to the station. And if I missed this train, there was no way I would make the XPT train on time.

I'm still nervous in my house because nobody wants to be friends here and it's gross and nobody gives a fuck. I don't even know what to do! I tried to talk to these people, but they're like cockroaches. You meet them in a common area and they drop everything and walk - without speaking to you - back to their room until you are gone. Who the fuck does that? Asian's are cool, in their own way. But living with them is fucked.

It should probably read: đụ má m

I stood in the middle of my room for, honestly, about a minute deciding if I should take my guitar. I thought, will I even have time to play it? Is it worth taking all the way there? Will people think I'm a wanker for bringing it? It's a bass guitar, not even a regular guitar! Then I thought, oh well fuck it, if I take it and don't use it than so be it. Turns out it was probably the most appropriate thing I took.

Just slapin some bass

Anyway, so I'm on a train embarking on a 12 hour trip or something crazy. The trip wasn't so bad. If I had known that I could have caught the XPT at Strathfield, I would have! It would have saved me about an hour! Anyway. It was pleasant enough. It's a long time to be sitting down. I went for a few walks and bought breakfast at the canteen.

There were definitely some crazy and weird people there. People with no fixed address or phone, pay for everything in cash. They're only one step above homelessness I'd say.

Dallas?

The scenery gradually changes from urban city, to suburban, to mountain, to rolling hills, to flat plains, to desert plains. Pretty cool. Some of the towns we rolled through weren't much. I question how they stay afloat. At every one of these towns, there was never anyone about. Everything seemed closed or abandoned. Pull your socks up country Australia!

Looks friendly...

Broken Hill

It's not really a small town, 20,000 people live there. And apparently, I'm not sure it's true, but the miner population is only about 400 - 2% of the total population. Yeah, not sure about that...

By the way, Broken Hill is so fucking far away, it's in the CENTRAL TIME ZONE! Everything there runs out of Adelaide.

We stayed in a little backpacker/dormy place about 5 minutes drive south of the town in the scrub. There was 1km of dirt road that ran along the Sydney bound rail line leading to our place. It was a really nice place, I rated it.

I was rooming with five dudes from the class. Three of them are doing their major project together so they were well engaged. I really only knew one other guy better then not knowing anyone - I'd spent both Conception Days with him.

I was unfortunately forced onto the top bunk as all the bottoms were taken. There were always moths and shit flying around near the ceiling due to the lighting. So I had to sweep my bed a couple of times at night to keep them off it. I ended up swapping ends so my head wasn't near the light.

I woke up about 530 to watch the sunrise. I tell you what, outback sunrises rival any beach sunrise. When the land is flat, the twilight lasts about an hour before the sun breaches the horizon. Pretty amazing.

It was always really cold before the sun breached. But as soon as it did, it would warm up straight away.

We had a little orientation in town that allowed us to view what's basically the saddest town in Australia. Buildings are grey or white and look run down. Yards are red dirt or grey dust; the whole time I only saw grass a few times. Roads were mainly white concrete and covered in red dust. I saw very few people walking around too, which added to it's dreadfully run down feeling.

All the flora is grey and brown or dull green. I spoke to one person who said that although everything looked 'green', this was the most colourful it had been in decades. The surrounds were normally just red, with a few grey/dull green shrubs. Because of the rain that flooded most of Queensland, NSW and Victoria earlier this year, Broken Hill exploded with floral growth. Sounds good, right? Turns out it brought on plagues of rats, locusts and then snakes. Screw that for a joke. Extra credit reading on that.

And just for the record, there are no less than four football clubs in Broken Hill. I guess they've got to do something while the barmaids tap new kegs...