The Hog’s Back

The story of the men who made Broken Hill

by Ruth Trant Fischer

Macmillan, 1970, ISBN 0333119150, black and white illustrations, black and white photographic plates, hardcover, dustjacket with Mylar sleeve

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, dusty and age toned foredges, dustjacket in good condition with edge and shelf wear, chipping, creasing and a little rubbing, in protective Mylar sleeve attached to inside front covers (see photographs)

“At the age of fourteen, Philip Charley found himself transported to a new life in the dry outback of N.S.W.  His health was delicate; he had to get away from the cold damp climate of Melbourne, and by a stroke of luck he was taken on as a jackeroo by George McCulloch, the bluff Scots manager of the Mt Gipps station.  Routine life on a sheep station in the 1880s was quiet and uneventful, the most exciting events being the shearing, the annual picnic race meeting and ball, and every three or four years, the welcome rain. 
Until silver was found in the area.  Overnight Umberumberka flourished, and became the mining town of Silverton; men made fortunes; strikes were being made everywhere – everywhere, that is, except at Mt Gipps, where life went on as usual.  Miners had been forbidden to prospect on the Hog’s Back, the only hill of any size on the property, and the hill soon became known derisively as the ‘hill of  mullock’.  But Philip’s friend and mentor, Charlie Rasp, thought otherwise.  He was certain that the old hill must contain something, some mineral riches, even if not silver.
The story of Rasp’s tenacity, Philip’s enthusiasm and faith in his friend’s vision, McCulloch’s shrewdness and hard-headed business sense, and of how they were at last rewarded by finding the main lode in the Hog’s Back – the Broken Hill – makes gripping reading”