© irene waters 2015
Hostilities were raging in Europe and the Ottoman Empire had declared war with Britain in October of 1914 when the Battle of Broken Hill came to Silverton on the 1st January 1915.
Silverton a small town (popn 60) 26 kms north-west of Broken Hill in NSW was the annual site of the Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows picnic day. A tram line ran between Broken Hill and Silverton, a remainder of the silver rush which gave the town its name. To transport the oodles of people attending the picnic both the train and all the open ore trucks were full of people.
Two Ghans (the name given to the Pakistani/Afghani workers who had come across to work with the camels) positioned themselves on a rocky embankment opening fire when the train was in their sights. At first the picnickers thought it was a welcome to the picnic day but as their companions fell around them bedlam broke out. The train guard, father of who was to become Prof Sir Ronald Nyholm, was a great marksman and was pivotal on preventing more deaths and injuries.
The ghans escaped to their camp, killing more people on the way. Here, surrounded by police, the local army and a mob of angry townsfolk, they were pumped full of gun shot,killing both, despite the white flag they were flying. At the scene the forces found an Ottoman flag and notes from the two men saying they attributed their actions to acting on behalf of Turkey in their hostilities with Britain.
I wonder though whether this was yet another example of an event being used for political ends. The two men, Gool (an ice cream vendor) and Abdullah (a local imam and halal butcher) had grudges to bear. Gool had suffered racism with rocks being thrown at him, knocking off his turban, which he then didn’t wear through fear. Abdullah had recently been in court on charges brought by the Sanitation Dept that he was not killing animals in a venue approved for slaughter. Reasons enough for marginalised people to become angry. Abdullah wrote that he was dying for his faith and in response to a letter from the Turkish Sultan ” but owing to my grudge against Chief Sanitary Inspector Brosnan it was my intention to kill him first.”
The next day all employees of foreign extraction, aligned to Germany, working at the Broken Hill Mines were declared enemy aliens and fired. It is believed by some that the Turkish flag and letter from the sultan was planted (the men were after all Afghani/Pakistani) in order to rally support of the Australian public for the war.
Shortly after this all enemy aliens were interned for the duration of the war. The Silverton Tramway Company refunded the fares in full to those that had been on the picnic train.
Enough for one post. I didn’t mention Silverton Pub or the vegemite painter so I will continue with Silverton for Day 4.
Thank you to Norah Colvin who nominated me this challenge. Norah’s passion is childhood education and even if you don’t have children, there is always thought-provoking insightful writing that keeps those grey cells working.
The blogger I am nominating today (with no pressure to join in ) is Debbie from Travel with Intent who has wonderful photos and travels the world.If you wish to participate it is 1 photo a day for five days add a story fiction or non-fiction or poetry, link to the person that nominated you and nominate 1 person each day.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
Sad, terrible story.
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Yes it is little known.
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Please don’t take my comments the wrong way – you wrote an extraordinary story, but one about terrible events. I should have paid better attention.
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I didn’t see anything wrong with your comments. It was a terrible event such a long time ago. Sadly these kinds of events happen all too frequently around the world with disgruntled people.
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I love that photo.
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Great pub. More about it today.
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Irene…I am actually an honorary member of the Broken Hills Leagues club and have a pin to prove it! i’ll take a picture and send it. Right out of college, I emigrated to Australia and taught school there. We took a trip cross country and wound up in Broken Hill. When the gents in the bar saw four young girls in the ladies’ lounge, they came to talk. I asked why they could come into our lounge but we couldn’t go into theirs, so they invited us in and made us honorary members. No lie!
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I wonder if it it was the public bar where I embarrassed my boyfriend of the time by drinking beer out of a straw. I bet Broken Hill living was an experience you won’t forget.
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We were just passing through. I still need to go down to my art studio to get my “badge” and photograph it so you know I am a true member of the BH leagues club!
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I believe you. It would almost make you an honorary Australian
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Thank you for the lesson in history. I hadn’t heard of Silvertown or these events: very tragic, as you say. I’m a little confused about the link to January 1, 2015 though. What am I missing?
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Big mistake on my part. These events took place on January 1 1915 which is why they were taken as an act of war. The town tried to get federal funding to commemorate the 100 years as they were giving out money to commemorate almost every battle that occured in 1915 but they were knocked back. I think it was not so much an act of war but two madmen that had been hurt by people in the society in which they lived. Not much different to a lot of what goes on today.
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Thanks Irene. I wondered if that was so (and didn’t intentionally point out an error) but the two different dates still didn’t compute for me. It all makes sense now. It is interesting that the town didn’t get the funding but, as you say, it probably was triggered by war events, amongst other things, rather than part of it. An interesting piece of history either way.
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I enjoy snippets like these. I should have been a historian.
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Isn’t a memoirist a kind of historian?
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I had not thought of it like that but yes you are probably right. Certainly a lot of social history is available from memoirs. Thanks for the thought.
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Such history in a place like this!
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If only walls would talk I’m sure there would be much history, everywhere.
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I agree that a memoirist is an historian. Think of Samuel Pepys.
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Yes I’d never really thought about it but on reflection they most likely are.
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