Silverton - Silver Screen Town

by Sally Hammond

Population around thirty. One pub, a church, a shop and some artist's galleries. And a camel farm out of town. That's Silverton. And it's about 1200 kilometres from Sydney, surrounded by red earth and little else.

All of this hardly sounds photogenic - less still the prescription for fame. Yet tiny almost-deserted Silverton, thirty kilometres beyond Broken Hill in far-western NSW, has made more impact on the film and TV scene than most places ten thousand times its size.

In case you can't picture the place just think about 'Priscilla', with many scenes shot around the area, or 'Hell, Texas and Home', 'In Pursuit of Honour', 'Kratt's Creatures' and the 'Royal Flying Doctor' series. Remember the 'Minder' episode that featured the place? And those are just some of the films in recent years. Before that there was 'A Town Like Alice' and 'Mad Max II' and dozens more.

Even if you haven't seen those, then you are sure to have picked up on the TV commercials for Olympic Tyres, Solo soft drink, Telecom, Mobil Oil, Diet Pepsi, Landrover, Penz Oil, Smiths Chips and Ampol, or any of the hundred or so other ads, film clips, or stills where Silverton and the surrounding area has made its mark.

The old pub at Silverton, watering-hole for locals and visitors alike has its walls packed with photos taken during the various shoots, and most of the locals have had their moment of fame as walk-ons or extras

Visit the place and you start to see what has attracted producers and film-makers to this remote spot. The air is clear, the sun shines 99 percent of the time, and the beer is good and cold at the old pub. What more do you need?

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