Fun For All Ages

FAMILY FUN IS THE NAME OF THE GAME AT ARB’S ELDEE EASTER WEEKEND, HELD AT ELDEE STATION IN WESTERN NSW.

- Ron Moon

IT WAS a pleasant start to the weekend as 25 teams consisting of couples with and without kids, along with extended family and friends, started to gather at Eldee Station. Some had arrived from as far afield as southern Queensland, Sydney and south-eastern SA, while ‘locals’ came from western NSW and the Wimmera region of Victoria. They were all here for the ARB Easter at Eldee weekend.

The small, powered camping area at Eldee with its patches of green grass (unique during these drought-ridden times) was quickly filled up, with most setting up camp nearby, sprawling over the flat plains but still within easy walking distance to the bar, restaurant and a racetrack hosting scale radio-controlled (RC) rock crawling vehicles.

For many first-time visitors to western NSW the adventure and fun begins well before arriving at Eldee Station. The main focus of the area is the mining colossus of Broken Hill, and while mining is still going on deep underground, much of it has been automated with heavy machinery ripping the now not-so-rich ore out of the ground. I haven’t been underground there for 20 years or so, but even back then when I plucked up the courage to head down into the bowels of the earth there was a huge cavern beneath the town of Broken Hill. Some say the town will one day vanish into a gigantic pit…

The town now relies more on the outlying mines and a growing tourist trade, many of whom come to this city in the west for its vibrant art scene (think: Priscilla Queen of the Desert fame and its Broken Heel Festival). I’m not sure what the early miners, who dug holes with pick and shovel, would think of those seismic changes to their society.