At first glance, Silverton looks like a town that time forgot.
Scattered historic buildings sit among red dirt, hardy saltbush and seemingly endless blue sky. Old ruins hint at a much busier past, while the famous Silverton Hotel stands as a reminder that this tiny settlement has never completely faded away.
But Silverton is far from a forgotten ghost town.
Once a booming silver-mining settlement, it has reinvented itself as an outback destination known for its history, artists, film locations and spectacular desert scenery. And once a year, the surrounding Mundi Mundi Plains come alive as thousands of people head west for one of Australia’s great outback music festivals.
A Town Built on Silver
Silverton’s story began with the discovery of silver and lead deposits in the Barrier Ranges during the 1880s.
The township was surveyed in 1883 and officially proclaimed in 1885. Prospectors, miners, shopkeepers and families poured into the district hoping to make their fortune.
By the end of 1885, Silverton’s population had grown to around 3,000 people.
Hotels, businesses, churches and public buildings appeared quickly, creating a surprisingly substantial town in what was otherwise a remote and unforgiving landscape.
For a short time, Silverton was one of the most important mining centres in western New South Wales.
When Broken Hill Took Over
Silverton’s boom did not last.
Even richer mineral deposits were discovered at nearby Broken Hill, and attention quickly shifted to the new mining centre.
People and businesses followed.
Silverton’s population declined and many of its buildings disappeared. With building materials valuable in the remote outback, some structures were dismantled and transported to Broken Hill.
Instead of becoming the major regional centre it once promised to be, Silverton became the tiny settlement we recognise today.
But it never completely disappeared.
A Town With Plenty of Character
Modern Silverton has only a small permanent population, but what it lacks in numbers it more than makes up for in personality.
Historic buildings, museums, galleries and quirky outback attractions are scattered around the village.
At its heart is the Silverton Hotel, one of Australia’s most recognisable outback pubs. Its wide verandah and unmistakable setting have become almost as famous as the town itself.
Artists have also been drawn to Silverton for decades, inspired by the enormous skies, brilliant sunsets, rugged landscape and changing colours of the desert.
It is a place where an old mining settlement has gradually found an entirely new reason to survive.
Silverton on the Big Screen
Silverton’s landscape looks as though it was made for the movies.
The empty roads, rocky hills and vast plains surrounding the town have provided locations for dozens of Australian and international film and television productions.
Most famously, the area became closely associated with the Mad Max films, particularly Mad Max 2. The landscape was perfect for the harsh post-apocalyptic world portrayed on screen.
Productions including A Town Like Alice, Razorback, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Mission: Impossible II and more recent Mad Max productions have also used the wider region.
Today, Silverton’s screen history has become another part of its appeal, attracting film fans from around Australia and overseas.
The Mundi Mundi Plains
Just beyond Silverton, the landscape opens dramatically onto the Mundi Mundi Plains.
From the Mundi Mundi Lookout, the country seems to stretch forever. On a clear day there is little to interrupt the view between the red earth and the enormous western sky.
It is one of those landscapes that makes the scale of inland Australia suddenly very real.
For generations the plains were simply part of the vast country surrounding Silverton.
Now they are famous for something quite different.
The Mundi Mundi Bash
Each year, the normally quiet Mundi Mundi Plains become the setting for the Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash.
The outback music festival was first held in 2022 and has quickly become a major event for the region. Thousands of travellers arrive with caravans, campers, motorhomes and tents to spend several days camping beneath the outback sky and listening to Australian music.
For a short time, the population of this normally sparsely populated corner of New South Wales explodes.
The Bash has also become known for enormous crowd activities, including record-breaking Nutbush dances and gatherings of people dressed in Mad Max costumes — particularly appropriate considering the area’s film history.
The event has given the Mundi Mundi Plains and nearby Silverton yet another chapter in their story.
Where miners once arrived chasing silver, today’s visitors arrive chasing music, sunsets and the experience of camping in one of Australia’s great outback landscapes.
More Than a Ghost Town
Silverton is sometimes described as a ghost town, but the description does not quite fit.
There may be ruins and reminders of abandoned buildings, but Silverton is very much alive.
People still live there. Artists still work there. Travellers wander through its museums and galleries, have a drink at the pub and head out to watch the sun sink across the Mundi Mundi Plains.
Its survival is part of what makes the town interesting.
Silverton has already lived several lives — mining boomtown, near-abandoned settlement, artists’ community, film location and outback tourist destination.
Why Silverton Remains Special
Silverton tells a story repeated across inland Australia.
Towns appeared almost overnight when minerals were discovered. Some became permanent cities. Others vanished when the mines closed or richer discoveries were made elsewhere.
Silverton came remarkably close to disappearing.
Instead, it adapted.
The miners may have gone, but the old buildings, desert scenery, film history and people who chose to stay have given the town a second life.
And now, when music echoes across the Mundi Mundi Plains and thousands of temporary residents settle onto the red dirt for the Bash, this tiny former mining town once again finds itself at the centre of a very Australian gathering.
Silverton may be small, but disappearing quietly was never really its style.
