Broken Hill was named such by Charles Sturt on his Central Australian expedition of 1844-46. Pastoralists took up land in western New South Wales and from the mid 1870s boundary riders and prospectors began finding traces of silver. There was a rush and many claims were established. The town of Silverton was established in 1880. The rich silver ores were quickly depleted but in the meantime the rich lode on Broken Hill had been discovered by Charles Rasp in 1883. Broken Hill mining flourished. When the miners asked the New South Wales government to build a railway to connect them with the east, it refused. South Australia however agreed, but was only permitted to build its railway as far as the border of New South Wales. The Silverton Tramway Company built and operated a rail line to connect with the South Australian railway, which would link the mines with Port Pirie on Spencer Gulf, where smelters were established and the port facilities expanded to cope with the greatly increased traffic.

The map shows the extent of the mines in the Barrier Ranges.

W H Tietkens was a surveyor, explorer and prospector: in 1882 he prospected for silver in the Barrier Ranges, and would have become very familiar with the region.

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