Broken Hill turns on the charm for influx of outback adventurers as QantasLink begins new regional route

The colours are different in this part of the world. Against the backdrop of yellowing grass, blue sky and iridescent clouds, this salty bush's plentiful plains are startling, tinging the landscape with blue-green.

In Broken Hill - Australia's first heritage-listed town - saltbush is herd-fodder for drought-stricken farmers, and foraged-food for those in the know.

This is a mining town, but it's the kilometres of land stripped by the miners that make a home for saltbush, and locals are finding a way to use assets like this hardy herb to pave a way forwards for their tourism industry.

Back in the 1800s, explorer Charles Sturt searched vainly past Broken Hill for an inland sea. Today, a salty bush-food plant - that subsists almost entirely on dust - is providing just one avenue back to growth for a town whose roots are tarnished with silver.

Ngayi is "hello" in local Indigenous dialect, and it is such that Mark Sutton, senior tour guide with Silver City Tours, greets our party of journalists as we step off the first QantasLink flight from Sydney to Broken Hill. We are in town to celebrate the new route; it flies twice-weekly and there are high hopes it will bring in more tourists.

Broken Hill is Wilyakali land and mostly semi-arid desert - but La Nina has touched the plains just like the rest of eastern Australia. Water pools on the sides of the roads, and green plant clusters grow upwards around water holes, like oases in the red dirt.

You need to travel 100 kilometres out of Broken Hill to see the bush in its natural state. From the late 1800s, mining operations gutted the land, cutting trees at a rate of 200 tonnes per day for almost 30 years, fuelling the machinery that pulled silver, lead and zinc ores out of the ground.

There were 30,000 people living in Broken Hill at its peak - a far cry from the 17,000 there now - but the town is hopeful that a new open-cut mine, operated by Cobalt Blue Holdings, will attract the workers. In the meantime, tourist season is kicking off, and the state government is helping small businesses kickstart their offerings through Destination NSW grants.

If you head off the beaten track to "the other side" of Broken Hill town centre, you'll come to Patton Village, where Jason King owns Bells Milk Bar - Australia's oldest continuously running milk bar. Old-fashioned milkshakes, spiders and toasties are on the menu, teamed with original decor from the 1950s to 1970s.

The menu offers more than 50 traditional drink flavours, all made using Bells' own handmade syrups and cordials, manufactured in two-gallon batches on the premises - the way it's always been done.

Mr King is not a descendent of the Bell family (for a gold coin donation, you can find out all about the historic owners at the museum out back) but people sometimes mistake him for "Mr Bell". A keen filmmaker, Mr King bought Bells in 2004 because the story behind it appealed to him.

"Generations from Broken Hill were weaned on Bells Milk Bar. So many people tell me stories of how they met at a milk bar and were married," Mr King says.

Back in Broken Hill proper, in the site of an old Chinese restaurant across the road from the town's slag heap, chef Lee Cecchin has her fingers in many pies - not just the emu pie we try on our tasting plate at The Old Salt Bush Restaurant & Catering.

Here, Ms Cecchin serves oldman saltbush as a rub on lamb, and sprinkled on chips with Murray River salt. The flavours of the plant, dried like a herb, resemble rosemary and green tea.

She says everyone is "on the bandwagon" of using bush-enhanced flavours like wattleseed, lemon myrtle and finger-lime. But saltbush is plentiful in her neck of the woods, so she uses it.

The Sufi Bakery around the corner bakes the saltbush sourdough which Ms Cecchin serves with olive oil and wattleseed dukkah in her restaurant. A blue-tinged saltbush gin is made by the local Broken Hill Distillery exclusively for The Old Salt Bush, where it is served with lime and Mediterranean tonic.

Twice weekly, Ms Cecchin caters for the Indian Pacific when it comes through town. She has also taught cooking classes and cultural programs - including one on foraging - over the years.

Under the brand name Pandora's Palate, Ms Cecchin makes a range of packaged bush foods, including native fig chutney (which won gold at the Sydney Royal), quandong and apple syrup, and a finger lime mojito mix.

They call Broken Hill the Silver City and its street names are plated with elements: Bromide, Garnet, Iodide and Argent (French for silver) are just some of the streets you will encounter in town.

Our guide says that in World War II, when there was threat of Japanese attack, Australia's gold reserves were brought by train under the cover of darkness to Broken Hill Correctional Centre - the thought being that the tough men in the jail would protect the country's assets.

The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited - BHP Billiton today - was formed in nearby Silverton. Operations moved to Broken Hill and corrugated-iron miner's cottages, built by BHP for its workers from the 1930s to 50s, still surround the town.

The road to Silverton has 39 dips, and four roaming donkeys on the day we drive it - they are foraging the saltbush plains. This road was closed off for the filming of Mad Max 2 and a museum dedicated to the movie is one of the few buildings in Silverton.

Owned by Brits Adrian and Linda Bennett, the Mad Max Museum is packed with paraphernalia from the sets of the films, as well as photographs, life-sized characters in full costume, original and replica vehicles, and memorabilia.

During the pandemic, Mr Bennett built a replica Mad Max compound, which is being used to film SBS comedy Housos while we are there. Later this year, Chris Hemsworth will be in town to film the new Mad Max prequel, Furiosa, to be released in 2023. Mr Bennett is excited: "There'll be 700 crew members and it'll be huge for the area."

Silverton is camel country - at Silverton Outback Camels, at least. Owners Petah Devine and Duncan Pickering run camel-train rides around town and their hand-raised emu, ToTo, comes up to say hello. An array of geese and ostriches, and a half-dingo, also join the throng.

Mr Pickering says the strongest camels should bring up the rear: "The camels I trust the most aren't the ones up the front, they're the camels I have down the back because I know they'll stroll along and take everything in their stride."

Silverton Hotel is a town landmark, offering cold beers, tasty pub food and a place to sit out of the heat. Publicans Peter and Patsy Price serve up to 300 lunches on a good day. They took over the 136-year-old pub after Mr Price had a dream - but they're keen to move on and the business is on the market. The only catch: they won't sell it to anyone who'll put pokies in the venue.

In August, the second Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash will bring outback adventurers and music-lovers to town, following the success of the inaugural event in April. Jimmy Barnes will be headlining along with the likes of Kasey Chambers, Daryl Braithwaite and The Black Sorrows. The Bash will support the Royal Flying Doctor Service, which operates a hangar out of Broken Hill Airport.

Mr Price says: "There's a lot happening ... We're looking good for the future."

Back in town, Broken Hill Distillery's Paul Hanna is celebrating the business's World Gin Awards 2022 gold medal, awarded to their Gunpowder Gin.

Take a tasting paddle out into the sunny beer garden or try a "Dust Storm" made with Moonshine (immature whiskey), a squeeze of lime and ginger beer.

The distillery is out the back of the Tydvil Hotel and parent company Fossey's Distillery is where Mr Hanna learnt his craft.

But speaking of tipples, no Broken Hill experience is complete without a visit to the grand, three-storey The Palace Hotel, made famous by the 1994 Australian classic film, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Broken Hill has been synonymous with drag culture since parts of the movie were filmed in the town, and a giant stiletto advertising the Broken Heel Festival - happening in September - stands in the entrance, ABBA songs playing in the corridors.

Grandiose murals adorn the walls and visitors can book private functions in The Priscilla Suite, which is preserved exactly the way it appeared in the film.

There is accommodation on site - some rooms are being renovated - and the hotel has one of Australia's only year-round two-up licences. Hotel co-owner Esther La Rovere says The Palace was "kitsch before kitsch was cool".

Mutawintji National Park is a uniquely Australian experience and an easy day trip from Broken Hill. Our guide, Mr Sutton, wears another hat here: he is senior tour guide for Mutawintji Heritage Tours, which is owned and operated by Mutawintji Local Aboriginal Land Council.

The landscape here is evocative of central Australia and there is camping on-site and bushwalking. But if you book a tour with Mr Sutton, you will gain a unique insight into the park, including local Aboriginal cultural and sacred places.

Mr Sutton invites us to taste what the local kids call a "snotty gobble" - a native mistletoe berry with a sweet, mucus-like centre.

We touch a fossil containing the footprints of an animal that is thought to have lived between 130 and 350 million years ago and resembled a scorpion the size of a cow.

A very special experience is viewing rock art engravings that are thousands of years old. Mr Sutton says: "This is our Sistine Chapel." Indeed, if you look up at night, out here in the bush, the sky is another type of artwork, its beauty rivalling the works of Michelangelo's famous ceiling.

This enormous, starry sky is explained in bite-sized chunks by Linda and Travis Nadge at their Outback Astronomy site, closer to town. Rugged-up revellers recline on camp chairs and drink hot chocolate while learning about the constellations.

Self-taught, the Nadges' astronomical interests began while sitting in their backyard on a hammock, watching the sky.

Imagine having a backyard so beautiful.

The flight from Sydney to Broken Hill takes two hours; it's a backyard we can all share.

Why not take a punt on our outback, out back?