Broken Hill City Art Gallery

The Broken Hill City Art Gallery is the oldest regional art gallery in New South Wales and has recently reopened following a $1.7 million refurbishment of its historic home, a former hardware store, Sully’s Emporium.

The original gallery opened in 1904 in the city’s Technical College with the bequest of three artworks by George McCulloch, one of the ‘Syndicate of Seven’ founders of BHP. It moved into its current home a century later, in October 2004.

This space in the heart of Broken Hill carries an impressive collection of artworks from Australia and overseas. And, with the gallery’s fresh new look has come a new way of exhibiting works: permanent displays are no more; instead, pieces will rotate through the gallery as part of themed exhibitions.

You’ll find an impressive array of works from the 19th century to the present day, by the likes of Margaret Preston and Arthur Boyd, as well as Indigenous artists from central Australia, such as Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, and local artists including Uncle Badger Bates, a Barkindji Elder who combines traditional images with lino printing.

You’ll also get the chance to see older colonial works by the likes of James Coutts Michie and James Ashton, as well as Victorian painters such as Arthur Hacker.

Admission is by donation.