The Battle of Broken Hill

These are lost stories. Forgotten Australian history. Brought back to life by two years of investigation and research.

Some call it the first act of terrorism on Australian soil.

A day when the horrors of World War I came to Australian shores.

It was New Year's Day. 1915. The Great War, World War I, was just months old.

In the outback mining town of Broken Hill, a small band of Afghan camel drivers lived on the fringes in their own community, known as the Ghantown. These men with their camels trekked essential food and supplies to isolated communities, remote cattle and sheep stations, deep in Australia's unforgiving desert lands.

The Afghans were different: different skin colour, different faith, different dress. A way of life alien to almost everyone in Broken Hill. Some of these tough foreigners were loyal to a Sultan in Turkey, who had just declared war on Australia.

Broken Hill was a proud, tough trade union town. Many workers, in this then uncompromising town, disliked the Afghanis. Mainstream Broken Hill regarded the foreigners as scabs who stole badly needed work from the Teamsters' Union. Bullying and racism were daily cruelties in this outback realm.

Simmering tensions were about to erupt. What followed was a spasm of violence so shocking it became known as The Battle of Broken Hill.