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Broken Hill is a well-known mining town in the far west of New South Wales. Whilst it is most famous for its mineral wealth, Broken Hill also has a reputation for its hotels, with no less than 71 being licensed in the city's history.
The Royal Exchange Hotel is an imposing two storey art deco style hotel building, and being situated at the corner of Argent and Chloride Streets, it is arguably at the centre of Broken Hill's central business district. In considering its history, it is important to take into account the history of Broken Hill hotels generally.
The Broken Hill settlement grew spectacularly from the first ore discoveries of 1883. On the 31st of July 1885 the first hotel, the Bonanza Hotel, was opened on the corner of Argent Lane and Delamore Street by William Delamore. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by fire on the 6th of February 1894 and the license was cancelled on the 8th of September 1894. The hotel site is now a car park for the City Art Gallery. The only other hotel to be licensed in 1885 was the nearby Silver King Hotel on the corner of Delamore and Argent Streets which was licensed on the 9th of October 1885. It closed in 1993, but its building survives today, and is among the oldest surviving hotel buildings. Five hotels were licensed in 1886, one of which, the BHP, (or, the West Darling Hotel), is the city's oldest surviving licensed hotel. Five more hotels were licensed in 1887 and in 1888 no less than 40 hotels received licenses, making a total of 52 licenses issued in Broken Hill's first five years.
The fifty third hotel license for Broken Hill was granted at the Silverton Licensing Court by Messrs Wyman Brown and J J Williams, LM's, to Barnett Harris on the 25th of Janurary 1889 for the Royal Exchange Hotel and the hotel opened that day. The Royal Exchange Hotel most likely takes its name from the nearby Broken Hill Stock Exchange which was in operation at the time. An Exchange Hotel (now the Theatre Royal Hotel) had opened almost opposite the Stock Exchange in 1886, and it is not unusual to use the "exchange" name for buildings near a Stock Exchange. The Broken Hill Stock Exchange was situated in Argent Street almost next door to the Royal Exchange Hotel, and the facade of the building survives.
The original Royal Exhange Hotel building was of single storey made from stone and brick with an iron roof. It was built and owned by Barnett Harris who was alsot the first licensee. The Argent Street for on the 5th of November 1888 caused £800 (about $110 000) worth of damage to three shops also being built by Harris and it is reasonable to assume that this damage extended to the partially built Royal Exchange Hotel. The damage must not have been to severe however, as the hotel opened for business 11 weeks later.
A newspaper article has stated that the Royal Exchange Hotel building was brought in from Parramatta by means of bullock wagon in 1886. It was said to have been owned by W Reynolds and destroyed in the Argent Street fire of 1888. This story is incorrect and refers to the Exchange (now Theatre Royal) Hotel nearby which Reynolds owned and transported from Prunamoota. Reynolds was the first licensee of the Exchange Hotel, but never a licensee of the Royal Exchange Hotel.
In its early days the Royal Exchange Hotel was no stranger to dramas. On the 6th of March 1889, fire destroyed a small building owned by licensee Harris in Argent Lane (Gawler Place) behind the hotel. In November 1890 a William Kilroy died after being ejected drunk from the hotel. The inquest into his death was conducted at the Mayflower Hotel which was situated at 196 Chloride Street. The Mayflower Hotel closed in 1893.
Rebuilding the Hotel:
By the 1930s the Royal Exchange Hotel was owned by the South Australian Brewing Company (SABC), who also owned the Freemasons (now BHP/West Darling) Hotel. In 1936 the SABC disposed of the Freemasons Hotel to rival brewers Tooth & Co of Sydney and this then left SABC without a quality hotel in Broken Hill. As early as 1936 SABC had announced that they were considering rebuilding the Royal Exchange as a luxury hotel, to give them a means to satisfy the growing market for such accommodation. The lack of quality accommodation in Broken Hill was receiving much unfavourable press coverage, so the move by the SABC was well timed and well received, but nothing happened for about two years.
In Janurary 1938, the SABC proposed to rebuild the Royal Exchange Hotel as a four storey building with 44 rooms, at a cost of £45000 (about $3.6mil), but the project was reduced in scale to a new two storey building with the cost estimated at the time of £33000 (about $3.35mil). The architects were F Kenneth Milne and Associates of Adelaide. In December 1939 an Application was made to the Licensing Court for approval for the rebuilding work which involved demolition of the existing hotel and the erected of a new two strorey building. This was approved by the Licensing Court on the 14th of December 1939. Local folklore says that the construction stone came from the old shearing sheds at Mount Gipps Station, however this is not confirmed in the architect's specifications. The construction of the new hotel was carried out by builders Fricks Bros, and completed in late 1941 at a final cost reported as £48000 (about $3.5mil). During the construction period, demolition of the old hotel was carried out progressively and sections of the new hotel built. This allowed the hotel to continue to trade temporary bar facilities, which were moved several times during the rebuilding work.
The completed building had 33 rooms and 13 bathrooms, and boasted a number of features which were modern for their day including air conditioning (claimed to be one of the first hotels in Australia to be so equipped), telephones in most rooms, a public bar counter 100 feet (30m) long and a saloon bar counter 46 feet (14m) long.
The 1941 building is substantially the building which exisits today, but there have been a number of alterations to the interior of the hotel over the years since.
Of interest, whilst the SABC were rebuilding their Royal Exchange Hotel, Tooth & Co were upgrading the Freemasons (now BHP/West Darling) Hotel which they had bought from the SABC in 1936. Tooths also owned the luxury Grand Hotel, diagonally opposite the Royal Exchange (now trading as a guesthouse), and were eager to keep their dominance in the luxury hotel market. Whilst the Freemasons was not completely rebuilt as was the Royal Exchange, none the less Tooths spent 46000 (about 3.5mil) on their purchase of the Freemasons Hotel from SABC and on its rebuilding work. All this building work on the Royal Exchange and Freemasons Hotels happened whilst there was wartime restrictions on building works generally, but somehow in Broken Hill $7mil in today's money was spent on luxury hotels. How this got around the wartime building restrictions remains a mystery.
The Royal Exchange Hotel Today:
The Royal Exchange was acquired by the Broken Hill Legion Club in 2001, and they set about undertaking a complete refurbishment of it, providing the facilities that it presents today. There are currently 23 rooms and all have ensuite bathrooms. The lounge and dining areas are superbly furnished giving the hotel a magnificent ambience. In a link with the past, some of the former 1941 "business" facilities remain near the reception desk.
On the 8th of December 2011, the Royal Exchange Hotel was purchased by the current owner, John Gavranich.
Source: Barrier Miner 26/1/1889, Silver Age 7/11/1888, Barrier Miner 6/6/1969, Barrier Miner 7/3/1889, Barrier Miner 25/11/1890, Noel Butlin Archives Centre, Russel & Yellan Architects, Barrier Miner 14/12/1939, Barrier Miner 6/12/1941, K Dansie (1986), the Broken Hill City Library, University of SA Architectural Museum, the Tooth & Co Files N60 - YC (ANU Canberra).
Buddy Patrick Photography would like to acknowledge and extend warm regards to John Gravranich for allowing this photographic session to take place Saturday 19 July 2025.
Cerro Gordo is an old mining town in the Inyo range above Owens valley, where there once was a magnificent lake that Los Angeles drained years ago. The remaining buildings are gorgeously preserved, and there’s old mining equipment and even open mines visible from the dirt road up. The town sits at around 8500 or so feet up the dirt road, for which I strongly recommend a 4x4 vehicle. The care taker of the town is a kind man named Robert Desmarais, who works passionately to preserve what remains of the town. If you go up there, best if you call first (760 867 4161) and say let Robert know you’re headed up that way and ask permission to see inside some of the building or even for a tour. Please don’t go anywhere off the road without his permission. Please also, bring some supplies to donate if you can. Water, firewood, groceries would all be very much appreciated, I’m sure. And one more thing, if you do head up there, please mind the signs, and respect the history of that beautiful treasure. Leave no trace.
I built this MOC for Andromeda's Gates on Eurobricks. It shows a MANTIS mining base in full swing, there's even some little loader trucks carrying loads of Awesomnium. The building has a full interior as well.
These are the doors to the water tunnel from the Oak Hill Colliery. Under this mountain is said to be and indoor lake and here is where the overflow escapes from. Duncott, PA. Photographed 12-29-11.
I don't have any info on this place but all I know I've passed it for yrs and finally got tired of that so I stopped one day - but did find out that it's on Alvarado Rd which I thought was still Stanley Rd in this area - up from Stanley Rd - So my question is was there a mining town called Alvarado and is this a combination of 2 names - Al n Colorado????
A 22-image photomosaic (two rows of 11 shots) shot on 25-May-2016. All images were shot handheld with a Lumix G7 camera with a Lumix 12-35mm f2.8 lens at f11 and varying shutter speeds to maintain exposure. ISO 400.
Mining Syscoin is an essential part of the cryptocurrency and blockchain process. GIVE ATTRIBUTION TO: BeatingBetting.co.uk
President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers the keynote address at the 2022 Investing in Africa Mining Indaba at the Cape Town International Convention Centre under the theme “Evolution of African Mining”.(Photo: GCIS)
Miniature photography technique applied to photo. Those mining trucks at Kennecott Copper Mine are actually the size of a house.
10 minute photo challenge
Looking for larch on FS 7324
Blewett Pass Washington USA
four different sections of round table mining claim here
looking for gold
Brent and I assembling our mining rig with two ASUS Radeon R9 290s. Watch the time-lapse of the assembly vimeo.com/84810174
Working groups meetings in the Takyiman, Kwaebibirem Municipality.
Photo by CIFOR
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Title: Summer Camp Field Experience, Mining Engineering Department
Date: 1903
Description: As part of Iowa State College's Department of Mining Engineering research field experience, we have researchers and a professor riding a horse-drawn wagon to find good testing sites, 1903.
ID: 11-04-F.ChemEng.836-01-04
This work has been identified as being free of known restrictions under U.S. copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights. The organization that has made this item available believes that the item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. (CC Public Domain 1.0 and RightsStatements.org NoC-US 1.0). The original object is available at the Iowa State University Library Special Collections and University Archives (archives@iastate.edu). To request higher resolution reproductions of the original visit our website.
Longwall coal mining of the Dendrobium mine causing severe subsidence and the cracking of a creek bed.
Credit: Kate Smolski/NCC
Title: Sluice mining.
Creator: Unknown
Date: ca. 1870-1885
Part Of: Stereographs of the U.S. West and midwest
Physical Description: 1 photographic print on stereo card: stereograph; 11 x 18 cm
File: ag1995_1023_08_r_mining_opt.jpg
Rights: Please cite DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University when using this file. A high-resolution version of this file may be obtained for a fee. For details see the sites.smu.edu/cul/degolyer/research/permissions/ web page. For other information, contact degolyer@smu.edu.
For more information and to view the image in high resolution, see:
A small piece of LTV's taconite processing plant at Erie Mining Company, Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota. Polymet, a mining company with a fairly large northern Minnesota property, plans to use the plant for processing copper and other non-ferrous ores.
Taken during the recent convention of the Missabe Railroad Historical Society.
(ink illustration by Buck O'Donnell; public display, World Museum of Mining, Butte, Montana, USA)
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The town of Butte, Montana (pronounced “byoot”) is known as the “Richest Hill on Earth” and "The Mining City". The Butte Mining District has produced gold, silver, copper, molybdenum, manganese, and other metals.
The area's bedrock consists of the Butte Quartz Monzonite (a.k.a. Butte Pluton), which is part of the Boulder Batholith. The Butte Quartz Monzonite ("BQM") formed 76.3 million years ago, during the mid-Campanian Stage in the Late Cretaceous. BQM rocks have been intruded and altered by hydrothermal veins containing valuable metallic minerals - principally sulfides. The copper mineralization has been dated to 62-66 million years ago, during the latest Maastrichtian Stage (latest Cretaceous) and Danian Stage (Early Paleocene). In the supergene enrichment zone of the area, the original sulfide mineralogy has been altered.
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From exhibit signage:
Why do miners drill?
Drilling holes allow explosives to be placed and detonated inside solid rock to break it loose from the world and into pieces.
Iron tools, like hammers, picks, and chisels have been used to mine since the beginning of the Iron Age, about 2000 B.C. There were no explosives, so rock was simply beaten to pieces or wedged apart. Oddly enough, it took over 300 years after the invention of gunpowder before it was used to break rocks. Even then, for may years it was only used in natural cracks and fissures.
The first known use of drilled holes filled with gunpowder to break rock was in Germany in 1613. It was used exclusively for 250 years and continued to be used in coal mining and other special applications well into the 20th Century.
Unbelievably, pure liquid nitroglycerine, one of the most sensitive and unstable explosives known, was used extensively for rock blasting after the American Civil War. Both manufacturing and transportation were extremely hazardous. The slightest impurity or error could cause a batch to explode when the chemicals were combined. It was hauled around in bone-jarring wagons on rough roads. Documented cases tell of wagonloads rolling down mountains without detonating, but others that exploded from an insignificant cause, like a kid throwing a rock.
Alfred Nobel, the creator of the Nobel Prize, invented dynamite in 1868, using an absorbent material to de-sensitize nitroglycerine. He also invented the blasting cap to reliably set it off. The first dynamite plant in the United States was built in San Francisco in 1870, but it did not come into common use for nearly ten years until after the manufacturing and transportation methods were perfected.
Hand Drilling
For 250 years, strong men swinging hammers against the iron drills was the only means of drilling holes in rock. One man drilling alone was called "single-jacking", while teams of two ore more, using heavier hammers, was "double-jacking". It was slow, hard, dangerous work with only oil lamps and candles for light. Buck O'Donnell's drawings show the drillers at work, but the white pages do not convey doing it in smoky, dusty, near-darkness and stifling heat.
[A] granite block [was] a contest stone. Drillers would compete in front of huge crowds for the title and prestige of drilling the deepest hole in fifteen minutes. Butte miners Walter Bradshaw and Mike McNichols hold the world's record for double-jacking, just shy of four feet.
However, two ordinary drillers working 10-12 hour shifts, day after day, year after year, drilled only four to six inches in hard rock during the same 15 minutes. Advancing a mine tunnel four feet took about a thousand inches of drilling, over eight days of constant drilling. Taking advantage of natural fractures was an important skill the best miners learned to cut this time down, but tunnel progress still averaged less than a foot a day.
Title: Mining Engineering Department's Diamond Drill Testing
Date: 1898
Description: Researchers under the guidance of a professor are testing a diamond drill for Iowa State College's Department of Mining Engineering, 1898.
ID: 11-04-F.ChemEng.836-01-05
This work has been identified as being free of known restrictions under U.S. copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights. The organization that has made this item available believes that the item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. (CC Public Domain 1.0 and RightsStatements.org NoC-US 1.0). The original object is available at the Iowa State University Library Special Collections and University Archives (archives@iastate.edu). To request higher resolution reproductions of the original visit our website.
President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers the keynote address at the 2022 Investing in Africa Mining Indaba at the Cape Town International Convention Centre under the theme “Evolution of African Mining”.(Photo: GCIS)
President Cyril Ramaphosa at the 2022 Investing in Africa Mining Indaba at the Cape Town International Convention Centre under the theme “Evolution of African Mining”.(Photo: GCIS)
I built this MOC for Andromeda's Gates on Eurobricks. It shows a MANTIS mining base in full swing, there's even some little loader trucks carrying loads of Awesomnium. The building has a full interior as well.