Broken Hill, historically considered one of Australia's boomtowns, has been referred to as "The Silver City", and less commonly as the "Oasis of the West", and the "Capital of the Outback".

Similarly, Broken Hill is regarded as part of South Australia for the purposes of postal parcels rates and telephone charges.

[8] Broken Hill's massive orebody, which formed about 1,800 million years ago, has proved to be among the world's largest silver–lead–zinc mineral deposits.

Lead with the isotope signature of the Broken Hill deposits has been found across the entire continent of Antarctica in ice cores dating back to the late nineteenth century.

Since Australia was at war at the time with the Ottoman Empire, the men were first thought to be Turkish, but were later identified as being from the British colony of India (modern day Pakistan).

Like many "outback" towns, Broken Hill was built on precious metals, having once had the world's richest deposits of lead, zinc and silver.

A HVDC back-to-back station with a maximum transmission rate of 40 megawatts was built at Broken Hill in 1986, to draw from the national grid.

The historic machinery was all removed and presumably scrapped and the giant pits that the motors were housed in were filled with concrete to convert the buildings into a warehouse type layout.

The Broken Hill City Council has received considerable funding and spent a large amount of money and resources on establishing a film studio in the buildings but as at late 2014 these buildings remain largely empty and unused as the production of Fury Road shifted to Namibia, Africa, following higher than expected rainfall.

Due to the over-extraction of water from the tributaries to the Darling River in the early part of the 21st century, the Menindee pipeline became an insecure supply for the city, in its harsh semi-arid climate.

There are four pumping stations along the route and a 720-megalitre (25-million-cubic-foot; 190-million-US-gallon) bulk water storage facility 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of Broken Hill.

The rolling stock was transported by sea to South Australia and the railway was supervised by the superintendent of the Broken Hill Government Tramways.

In 1937 the NSWGR placed the Silver City Comet into service – the first air-conditioned train in Australia, which ran between Broken Hill and Parkes.

During World War II, land transportation between South Australia and the eastern states became important because of the threat posed by submarines and mines to coastal shipping.

Broken Hill railway station is one of the stops of the Indian Pacific passenger service, operated by the Journey Beyond, from Sydney to Perth via Adelaide.

NSW TrainLink also operates a daily road coach service, departing the Broken Hill Tourist Information Centre at 03:45, connecting at Dubbo with the Central West XPT to Sydney.

[52] Regional Express operates air services from Broken Hill Airport to and from Adelaide, Dubbo, Griffith, Melbourne via Mildura and Sydney.

[53][better source needed] Local public transport is provided by CDC Broken Hill, operating four city bus routes from Monday to Saturday.

[64] Broken Hill's population peaked at around 30,000 in the early 1960s and has shrunk by one third since the heyday of the 1970s zinc boom, with the decrease attributed to migration from the closure and consolidation of mining operations.

[63] The impact on Broken Hill's economy of the shrinking mining industry and the more efficient mining rates resulted in a higher proportion of part-time employment, higher employment participation rate by females, a general reduction in overall household incomes, and an increase in the average age of the populace as the young leave seeking work.

In recent decades, the proportion of the population identifying as Aboriginal has increased markedly; from 0.6% in 1971 to 10.0% in 2021, partly owing to the migration of non-indigenous Australians away from Broken Hill.

Afghans worked as camel drivers in parts of outback Australia, and they made a significant contribution to economic growth when transport options were limited.

While the low metal prices of the 1990s led to the failure of miner Pasminco, the recent resurgence in metal prices has returned the sole existing operator, Perilya Limited, to profitability and prompted Consolidated Broken Hill Limited to advance development of the untouched Western Lodes and Centenary Lodes.

[citation needed] Owing to its exposure to the vagaries of the mining industry, and because of a swiftly shrinking population, similar to other rural centres, and compounded by its isolation, Broken Hill has encouraged its widespread artistic credentials[citation needed] and is promoting itself as a tourism destination to become less reliant upon mining as a source of employment.

These include mining operations (some open to the public), a visitor's centre and lookout on top of the original Line of Lode mine, historic buildings, town history walking trails, many resident artists and galleries, the Sculpture Symposium, COBB & Co coach & wagon rides, Silverton Camel Farm, Stephen's Creek, several quarries, lakes, the Mundi-Mundi plains, and sunsets.

Crime writer Arthur Upfield developed a nostalgic association with the city after his first visit in 1910, and published The Bachelors of Broken Hill featuring his character Bonaparte.

Cook based the novel on eccentric ocker characters he befriended in Broken Hill, drawing on their penchant for ritualistic drinking, two-up, hunting and alpha-male mateship.

[77] Another well known film to be produced in the surrounds of Broken Hill is Mad Max 2 with principal photography taking place across twelve weeks.

Although Broken Hill is in New South Wales, the programming schedules for these channels (excluding the ABC) is the same as those of Nine, Ten and Seven in Adelaide, with local adverts inserted and some variations for coverage of Australian Football League or National Rugby League matches, local and national news and current affairs programs, some lifestyle and light entertainment shows and infomercials.

Unusually for a town in New South Wales, Australian rules football is highly popular in Broken Hill and an important part of its culture.