After the Gold Rush

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For a rough, mining town in the Australian outback, Broken Hill has some surprisingly boho credentials. Movie buffs might recognize its spartan New South Wales landscape in films like Mad Max or Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Now it's also earning a reputation as a mecca for aspiring artists.

With year-round light of relentless intensity, Broken Hill has always lured the occasional painter. But authorities are giving formal encouragement these days through the establishment of international artist exchanges, artist-in-residence programs and annual scholarships. Hobby artists from around Australia are also flocking to the town for workshops in outback landscapes.

The result is a blue-collar outpost with uncommonly lofty aesthetic values and more than 30 galleries (including the Pro Hart Gallery, housing one of the largest private art collections in the country). Pretty impressive for a population of just 25,000. "It is definitely unusual to find a high cultural respect for the arts in a mining town," says Jacqui Helmsley, manager of Broken Hill City Gallery, "and in a place where people will still look at you if you have a funny haircut."

The locals will have to get used to seeing funny haircuts if the pace of transformation is anything to go by. Broken Hill City Gallery will be opening expansive new premises to celebrate its centenary in October this year—an event that will further mark the town's arrival on the Asia-Pacific art map. "It'll be controversial," laughs Helmsley, "but it's time to get rid of the Old Guard." And time to check that hard hat at the door.