Ruins or Relics?

What is a ruin?
What is a relic?

Solnit writes in ‘Ruins of Memory’ that
ruins stand as reminders
our links to what came before
our guide to situating ourselves in a landscape of time

… to erase ruins is to erase the visible triggers of memory

These hills of mine tailing hills are celebrated as a representation of the heart of Broken Hill. It is as if the city of Broken Hill worships at the foot of these tailings. The ‘old’ town on the southeast of the tailings and the new city on the northwest.

A memorial to miners who have died is located on top of these mine tailings. These hills of mine tailings are relics of past practices as the majority of the mine tailings are now kept underground.

These images below created in October 2020 document the ruins/relics of the mining industry of Broken Hill in outback NSW. A town that exists only because of the mining. In what form will it exist if/when the minerals in the soil are depleted?

These images were created on a large format 5×4 film camera. Itself a relic of the past.