The Broken Hill Mosque Museum<\/a> is located on the <\/span>corner of Williams and Buck <\/span>streets.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>To see inside the museum, you have to contact 82-year-old curator and caretaker Amanullah Shamroze. Bobby, as he\u2019s been called for as long as he can remember, unlocks the door and, in doing so, unshackles the story of Broken Hill\u2019s \u2018Afghan\u2019 cameleers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The mosque was built in 1891. (Image: Steve Madgwick)<\/p><\/div>\n The son and grandson of outback-building camel drivers, Bobby\u2019s insight is rare and precious indeed. From the 1860s, the cameleers and their camels were shipped into Australia\u2019s interior from India, Afghanistan and beyond. They became the backbone of the pre-railway outback transportation network, playing under-rewarded roles in building continent-traversing projects such as the Trans-Australian Railway and the Adelaide to Darwin Overland Telegraph Line.<\/span><\/p>\n The mosque functions as a museum. (Image: Steve Madgwick)<\/p><\/div>\n The \u2018Afghan Mosque\u2019 was considered the spiritual hub of the cameleer camp that mushroomed on Broken Hill\u2019s peripheries, just as the frontier town in far-western NSW was establishing itself as a key outpost in the crossroads of outback Australia. Because the cameleers lived on the fringes of society, however, the facts of their stories have been bent and stretched by time.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSome say the mosque was built in 1883, others say 1887, and I\u2019ve also heard 1891, too,\u201d says Bobby of Australia\u2019s oldest surviving \u2018Ghan-town\u2019 mosque. \u201cI\u2019m not quite sure, but it\u2019s somewhere between those figures.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Outside stands a vintage camel-drawn wagon, the semitrailer of its day, which may have even hauled the mosque\u2019s corrugated iron inland from the coast. Past a small channel for ceremonial feet washing, a memorabilia-rich antechamber leads into the prayer room, with its faded mint-green pressed-metal walls, two rows of prayer mats and pair of Qurans resting on ornate wooden stands.<\/span><\/p>\n The Prayer Room offers insights into Broken\u00a0Hill history. (Image: Steve Madgwick)<\/p><\/div>\n Bobby\u2019s father, Shamroze Khan, and grandfather, Fazulla Ziadulla, worshipped here. But the rest of their wayfaring lives are hard to pin down. \u201cStrangely, Dad never ever said where he actually came from, never mentioned any family. Even my grandfather said nothing about him really.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bobby knows more about Grandpa\u2019s story. Among surviving black-and-white photographs is one showing Fazulla outside his old house in the Punjab city of (then) Campbellpur, India (which became Attock, Pakistan, after the 1947 partition). He has been told that his father and grandpa came out together to Australia, but Bobby believes they arrived on different ships.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bobby (Amanullah) Shamroze shares snapshots of his storied life. (Image: Steve Madgwick)<\/p><\/div>\n Grandpa\u2019s boat apparently docked in Fremantle<\/a>, while his father\u2019s first stop was either Port Pirie, South Australia<\/a>, or Port Albert, Victoria<\/a>. \u201cIt must have been [Dad\u2019s] first stop because he [met] his first woman down there. She was a governess, apparently, at some property. They must have got on together and took off together.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bobby\u2019s father would buy camels \u201coff the boat\u201d in Port Augusta and then walk them 400 kilometres east to Broken Hill. \u201cThere was no other way to get them there. When they were building the railway line between Port Augusta and Marree [SA], he and a team carted all the water and shifted the camps.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Broken Hill is home to some of Australia\u2019s\u00a0toughest terrain. (Image: Destination NSW)<\/p><\/div>\n His dad apparently stashed enough cash as a camel dealer to buy \u201cseven or eight houses\u201d in Broken Hill \u201cback when you could get one for 200 pounds.\u201d But Bobby didn\u2019t fare so well, especially after his mum left when he was just four. He blames his parents\u2019 split on the age difference: 62 (dad) versus 24 (mum) when Bobby was born.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was a bit rough after Mum went. I ran away a few times. When I was seven or eight, I jumped on the train to Adelaide to look for Mum. I\u2019d been down there with my father visiting the Adelaide Mosque. You could go for a month and no one would worry about you. Not like today. And I\u2019d always have a couple of bob on me, to buy a pie or something.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Emus on parade in Broken Hill. (Image: Destination NSW)<\/p><\/div>\n Bobby bounced around for a while, sporadically staying with his mum (who he found working in a pub) and going to school in Adelaide. When his dad died in 1950, \u201cwelfare grabbed him\u201d, before a relative eventually helped Bobby return to Broken Hill. <\/span><\/p>\n He lived with his grandfather briefly, before becoming a shearer and wool-presser out on a remote station, settling back into \u2018the Hill\u2019 in the mid-1960s with life partner Janet, lured by work in the mines.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"the](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/DSC09553.jpg\")
![\"the](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/DSC09546.jpg\")
The story behind the \u2018Afghan Mosque\u2019<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"the](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/DSC09530.jpg\")
Pioneer worshippers<\/h2>\n
![\"Bobby](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/DSC09538.jpg\")
![\"an](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/179964-56.jpg\")
![\"a](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/180005-56.jpg\")
The rise of cameleers in town\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"views](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/156597-56.jpg\")
![\"a](\"https:\/\/s1.at.atcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/BrokenHillMosque-1.jpg\")