Historic Daydream Mine — Attraction in Broken Hill

We bought three tickets for your mine tour- both the above and below ground section. The above ground part was to be done by one guide before another was supposed to take over for the below ground section.

The first guide began by saying 'my name is... And your name is cook, your name is boss, cook, boss, cook, cook, boss, cook. Girls are cooks, boys are bosses. Got it?' he then continued using these names for us the entire time. At several points he also said phrases such as 'bosses follow your cooks so that they don't get lost'. If any of this was phrased in a historical or joking manner it might have been okay but the shear frequency this sexist labelling was used and the manner in which it was presented was dehumanizing and insulting.

This guide then continued to tell us barely anything about the mines for the entirety of the above ground tour. Topics of conversation were highly political, irrelevant to the mines (such as solar panels, bees, wind mills, and planes) and were mostly personal anecdotes again irrelevant to the mines. The entire first part of the tour that was lead by this guide gave us only three pieces of relevant information (that sillica was mined there, that some metals turn black when not polished and that some miners got lead poisoning due to lead lined food cans). This information (and alot of the other stories he told us) we rife with gender stereotypes and gendered assumptions. He would begin each topic with 'the cooks will know this' 'this is one for the bosses' and proceed with a highly gendered topic. For example he would say 'the cooks will know this one... What happens to spoons when you don't polish them for a long time? Come on cooks, you should know this'. He did the same thing on multiple occasions, with things such as makeup/silica. This isn't the 1900's anymore, women can understand and participate in a wide range of topics of conversation. Our knowledge does not revolve around makeup and spoons. There is no reason men shouldn't know and silica is an ingredient for makeup or use it in their lives. There is no reason we need to spend five minutes being quizzed about what women do that men don't ('put on makeup'), being given clues like 'pointless, us bosses don't need this stuff'. There is no reason we should be shamed for not correctly answering his gendered questions when he never told us any information or provided us with any context to work out the answers to begin with.

If I had not known that the second part of the tour was being taken over by someone else I would have walked out of the above ground tour half way through as nothing he told us was relevant, a lot of it was offensive and all of it was boring and near incomprehensible jibberish. His demeanor and attitude was rude and derogatory and after speaking with several other people who were also on our tour, many of them were also confused, offended and frustrated. We paid for this experience and all walked out gaining absolutely nothing. Our guide sipped away at his Pepsi max oblivious to our obvious frustration (people literally walking away from him telling us about his son's hospital trip, Trump and bee conservation) while he continued on and on and on and on and on.

When the other guide took over the tour automatically became much better. The under ground caves are quite cool! This experience could have been interesting but it was destroyed before we...

Highly disappointing. Not suitable for children under 7. Consider carefully for neurodiverse kids as part of the tour (obviously) it is pretty dark and all participants need to wear a hard-hat (sensible but no mention of before you start).

Arrived as a family of five. Paid for four of us (no charge for our three year old). Three year old quickly got hot waiting around in the sun and this continued as the tour kicked off slowly. Tour guide's language wasn't child-friendly which made it uninteresting for our seven year old and the little one. A missed opportunity on the business' part. Ten year old left under-whelmed when she was previously really excited. There was opportunity during the tour to talk to her and engage her but they didn't.

Before we entered the mine, our two small children pulled out as they were scared.

Husband found the tour pleasant only but the language was not modern and inclusive.

Only a partial refund was given for myself and my 7 year old girl even though we barely started the tour (less than 50% refund).

Scones were pushed on us at the start. After the tour, they then arrived late. Milo was weak. Scones weren't traditional. I've had plenty of scones being a Brit and these were cake-like.

We dislike writing poor reviews but felt this...

Best hands-on and real-life underground mine tour I've been on. Our tour guide today was Tyson. A great young bloke who knew the history of the area well. This non-working mine is about a 20-minute drive out of Broken Hill on the way to Silverton. The underground tour is not for anyone who doesn't feel comfortable in close spaces of which I'm one. However, I went down with some trepidation, and I was ok. It is a little tight in a couple of spots and you do need to be sure footed as well, but there are railings to hold onto and its only a few minutes before you can stand fully upright again. It might not be suitable for people with larger frames and who are over 175cm tall as these mines were originally created by our Cornish forefathers, and they were quite small in stature. We arrived not as part of a tour group, but we were able to purchase our entry tickets and enjoy delicious freshly made 'Cornish' scones, with jam ad cream and a nice cup of tea. It's a top spot to visit and well worth including in your itinerary. Also, it's best to call ahead and book in. We didn't, but we were given a private tour on this occasion. If you buy your tickets in advance, you'll save...