The Battle of Broken Hill

HISTORY

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These are lost stories. Forgotten Australian history. Brought back to life by two years of investigation and research.

Some call it the first act of terrorism on Australian soil.

A day when the horrors of World War I came to Australian shores.

It was New Year’s Day. 1915. The Great War, World War I, was just months old.

In the outback mining town of Broken Hill, a small band of Afghan camel drivers lived on the fringes in their own community, known as the Ghantown. These men with their camels trekked essential food and supplies to isolated communities, remote cattle and sheep stations, deep in Australia’s unforgiving desert lands.

The Afghans were different: different skin colour, different faith, different dress. A way of life alien to almost everyone in Broken Hill. Some of these tough foreigners were loyal to a Sultan in Turkey, who had just declared war on Australia.

Broken Hill was a proud, tough trade union town. Many workers, in this then uncompromising town, disliked the Afghanis. Mainstream Broken Hill regarded the foreigners as scabs who stole badly needed work from the Teamsters’ Union. Bullying and racism were daily cruelties in this outback realm.

Simmering tensions were about to erupt. What followed was a spasm of violence so shocking it became known as The Battle of Broken Hill.

John Gardiner has enjoyed a lifetime of travel and adventure. He has worked as a journalist and media adviser for more than 40 years, now dabbling as an author and screen writer. His book A Hitchhiker’s Triptych sets out the genesis of his wandering life. It explores in detail six months of hitchhiking through England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland during the early years of the 1970s. That journey set the scene for more than five decades of adventure across the globe.

John’s life has been shaped by the journey he so brilliantly, and simply, outlines in his first major work, A Hitchhiker’s Triptych. It is a book that will appeal to all ages. To everyone with a yearning for adventure, an open mind, and a desire to learn.

John, as well as being a writer, has been a committed surfer all his life. He currently lives in the pretty seaside village of Pottsville, in northern New South Wales, in Australia. He tells us he will never lose his love of the ocean.

“Life is special. I am surrounded by love. Yet that insistent urge to explore is strong within. All travellers will know what I’m talking about. Even now, the call of the road remains ever so strong.”