The Richest Lode: Broken Hill 1883-1988
Australian History Local History Antiquarian & Collectible Mining History Engineering & Technology Industrial Heritage Labour History
The Richest Lode: Broken Hill 1883-1988 is the definitive first-edition chronicle of Australia’s most legendary mining city, released in 1988 to mark the 105th anniversary of the discovery that powered a nation. Author and mining engineer R. J. Solomon combines meticulous research with rare period photographs, maps, and technical drawings to show how a dusty outcrop in far-western New South Wales became the planet’s richest source of silver, lead, and zinc. From the original 1883 claim pegged in 50 °C heat to the high-tech underground cities of the 1980s, every milestone—strikes, strikes, labor wars, world wars, and the birth of BHP—is captured in a single, beautifully illustrated hardcover volume.
Collectors prize this vintage hardcover for its sturdy cloth binding, pictorial dust jacket (protected by a clear archival cover), and the generous gallery of historic images—many never reprinted elsewhere. The book’s large-format pages reproduce early survey charts, head-frame blueprints, and candid shots of the “Syndicate of Seven,” making it as visually compelling as it is authoritative. Because the first print run was modest and most copies were used in mining libraries, clean, tight examples like this one—free of inscriptions, underlining, or smoke odour—are increasingly scarce on the second-hand market.
Beyond the technical story, Solomon weaves in the human fabric of Broken Hill: the Afgh cameleers who hauled water, the unionists who forged Australia’s eight-hour day, and the artists who turned the Line of Lode into an open-air canvas. The result is a book that satisfies historians, engineers, genealogists, and anyone nostalgic for the raw optimism of frontier Australia. Whether shelved beside Australiana, industrial heritage, or mining memorabilia, this first edition stands as the cornerstone reference on Broken Hill and a tangible tribute to the town that financed modern Australia.
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