If you are keen on the contribution made by the Afghans in the early days of Damaged Hill, you will be able to discover many fascinating pieces of info at the Afghan Mosque. Like most outback and inland communities before the arrival of the train line, Afghan camel trains provided the transport of supplies in and out of town.

Travel these travelling days is simple with AllSeasons Campervan Hire Sydney and too often, the transport options to isolated areas are disregarded when looking at the initial years of white settlement all though inland Australia. The Mosque in Broken Hill is the only surviving Mosque in Australia, which was essentially built by the early Afghan cameleers. It was built in 1891 and was moved to it’s current site in 1904 which is suitably the location of the ‘Camel Camp ‘ where camel drivers did their loading and unloading of products.

The building is made from wood and corrugated iron and additionally has an anteroom. The whole construction was painted in rust red which mixes in with the dominant colour of Broken Hill and was remodeled in 1968 by the Broken Hill Historic Society, who also solemnly planted an avenue of date palms. There also are original, wood and iron camel van wheels round the Mosque.

In the anteroom of the Mosque, there's a little museum which displays some of the tools of the camel train trade,eg camel saddles, camel bells and nose pegs as well as some traditional female and male headgear from Baluchistan. A walking stick which belonged to the last Mullah, as well as some other Islamic religious items, can be seen thru a glass display case.

The Afghan community was marginalised in Australia at the time, and as rail transport and then wagons became utilised for transport of goods, the Afghan communities diminished and then vanished. The Mosque in Damaged Hill remains a s a tribute to the transport contribution manufactured by the early cameleers, without which many inland and outback communities would never have did very nicely.

This draft was written by Anton Maverick who has travelled Australia at length by campervan he reccomends when touring the southern states either campervan Hire Australia or campervan hire Melbourne good luck with your travels.

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