STREETS OF BROKEN HILL
WHAT'S IN A NAME
One of the most intriguing features of Broken Hill to the newcomer is the central grid of mineral street names, branding the city unmistakably with its mining traditions.
These names are admittedly striking,ranging from poetic "Crystal Street" through metals, minerals and everyday compounds to the starkly prosaic "Slag Street".
But there is interest, too, in the scores of personalities that have been commemorated as the city has grown on both sides of the Line of Lode.
Personalities outnumbered minerals in Broken Hill street names by two to one, but the original theme has not been forgotten.
Our thoroughfares include down to earth names like Silica Street,Tin Street,as well as atom-age reminders such as Radium and Uranium Streets.
Street names also include personalities such as Rasp, remembered somewhat belated for his discovery of the Broken Hill outcrop, O'Neill ( "Paddy, the uncrowned King of Broken Hill).
THE FIRST SURVEY - The first survey of the new town was carried out in 1886.
It covered what is now the central part of the city - square grid of unnamed streets. Those running parallel to the Line of Lode were simply called First Street (Mica) to Ninth (Slag): the cross streets were not numbered. Later, minerals names were allotted; the numbered streets being changed respectively to Mica, Wolfram, Cobalt, Beryl, Blende, Argent, Crystal and Slag Streets.
Those running at right angles to the Line of Lode were called Iodide, Chloride,
Sulphide, Bromide, Kaolin, Garnet and Gossan Streets.
Slag Street was named from the nearby dumps of smelter slag.
With the explosive growth of the young mining town, streets were extended outwards from that first central pattern.
Spreading north - west away from the Line of Lode, streets were named after prominent personalities connected with Broken Hill's early development.
DOUBLE HONOUR - running parallel to Mica Street is Lane Street, named after Zebina Lane, one of three men to have been doubly remembered in Broken Hill's streets. The other two men to have two streets named after them are Wyman Brown
(parallel streets on the north western fringe of the city) and Jabez Wright (streets in Eastbound West Broken Hill).
Until a few years ago the horse-drawn vehicles of Charles Chapple & Co. were a familiar sight in the local streets. The original Charles Chapple had brought his carrying business from Silverton when the Broken Hill field prospered.
Today Chapple Street provides an important access route to North Broken Hill.
J.J.Williams, a prominent businessman whose name occurs frequently in early records, is remembered in one of the longest streets in the city.
Thomas and Cummins, too, were businessmen. H. H. Schlapp was brought from the United States to take charge of the B.H.P metallurgical operations.
Cross streets extended north-east from Iodide Street were also named after prominent men.
Brazil and Murton were businessmen. George McCulloch, was managing Mount Gipps Station when boundary rider Charles Rasp discovered ore in the Broken Hill paddock of the property.
EAST - In East Broken Hill we find a radical departure from the square grid pattern which predominates elsewhere; for many streets are sharply angled.
A few streets - Argent, Blende, and Beryl - continue through from the central area.
So does Wolfram Street, but its course is erratic. In places it vanishes altogether, only to re - appear further on.
In other places it moves bodily sideways after crossing a street.
Finally, it slants across to converge on Beryl Street.
The importance of silver in the early operations is expressed in the French form Argent for the main street of the city.
Here in the eastern sector, it appears again as just plain Silver
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