[1] There were some fifteen groups of Aboriginal people traditionally living in the huge area bisected by the Darling River in the western plains of NSW.

The same scarcity of water made the area unattractive for European occupiers and traditional Aboriginal ways of life continued longer there than in many other parts of NSW, into the 1870s.

However, mobility was essential to life in the mallee and sandhills, and as Aboriginal people were increasingly deprived of the full range of their traditional options, they were obliged to come into stations or missions in times of drought to avoid starvation.

The influenza epidemic of 1919 had a further significant impact upon the indigenous population, as did the twentieth century federal government policy of removing Aboriginal children from their families.

Western plains towns far away from the major rivers, such as Broken Hill, owe their existence to the mineral discoveries made in the decade after 1875, when spectacular deposits of gold, silver, copper and opal were found.

[4][1] The forerunners of the camels to enter the Broken Hill district were imported in 1866 by Sir Thomas Elder for use in northern South Australia.

Afghans were among the first non-Aboriginal people to view such iconic landmarks of central Australia, such as Kata Tjuta and Uluru, and had their own names ascribed along the way to places such as Allanah's Hill and Kamran's Well as the explorers mapped the emerging geography they traversed.

Many therefore worked and lived communally as a brotherhood of fellow cameleers, observing strict religious and related halal dietary practices that tended to discourage significant social interaction with others.

Therein do offer praise to Him at morn and evening men whom neither merchandise nor sale divert from remembrance of Allah and firmness in prayer and paying to the poor their due, who fear the day when hearts and eye-balls will be overturned".

Many old-timers from Broken Hill recall seeing Afghans in the bush working with their camel trains, stopping mid way at a certain time, kneeling on their mats praying.

[12][1] Broken Hill was a central hub at which several important camel trails and stock droving routes of the outback met the railroad and became a prominent place of commercial interaction between Afghans and Europeans.

[1] Despite the cameleers' historical and instrumental role in the development of NSW, the lack of substantive material and proprietary claims to "place" on the part of most of these men denied them recognition as a constituent community within the emerging cultural fabric of the new nation.

[6] Labour unions representing the powerful lobby of white teamsters had long orchestrated racist antagonism against the Afghans in an unsuccessful bid to exclude them and their camels from the transport business.

[1] The Broken Hill mosque is a modest structure, made from corrugated iron sheeting, which the Afghans themselves regularly transported into the outback.

There was a stone built mosque in a small, sandy square, its low minaret scantily shaded by a dusty pepper tree.

They were picturesquely squalid characters, known popularly among us in boyhood years as "hooshtas" from the command they gave the camels... All of them wore turbans and long baggy white cotton trousers..Sunday mornings we visited the "Ghan" camps...Children in large number played in the dust at the doors of the huts…".The men, particularly the older and more devout Muslims, went to the mosque regularly.

Abdul Fazulla, recalled seeing such a person, Mohamed Raffeeg, standing on the cement outside the mosque, putting his hands cupped with palms outward to the side of his face and calling the men to prayer.

[12] It was well used even when the Ghan community diminished in later years and the few people remaining in Broken Hill continued to use it regularly up till 1940 and then less frequently until the death of the last Mullah in the 1950s.

[20] Later in April 2017, the state government pledged $113,000 - to be matched by the Broken Hill City Council - to fix the mosque's interior and exterior walls and termite-damaged floor.

[15] The mosque sits on a dusty site with an avenue of date palm trees which were planted in 1965 by the Broken Hill Historical Society.

[1] Samia Khatun identified a book within the exhibition room, previously mislabelled a Qur’an, as “a 500-page volume of Bengali Sufi poetry” titled Kasasol Ambia, corresponding to Stories of the prophets (Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ).

Constructed in 1887, the mosque provides rare evidence of the pioneering presence of the "Afghan" cameleers in outback NSW during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Broken Hill Mosque is of social significance at a State level for its religious associations for the Islamic community in NSW and Australia.

[1] Broken Hill Mosque was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 23 April 2010 having satisfied the following criteria.

It represents the contribution the "Afghans" made to opening up the outback and, importantly, being the first town to connect NSW to London via the overland telegraph lines which they helped construct.

Architecturally, the building is of State significance for its blending of traditional Islamic design and motifs with the use of local corrugated iron sheets and other vernacular materials, such as various woods.

As it is a place of worship and a Holy Site, the rest of the Islamic community is likely to have strong spiritual, social and cultural connections to the mosque as they become more aware of its existence.

The mosque is also held in high regard by the Broken Hill Historical Society to whom it communicates a sense of place and identity as they have been its custodians and have maintained it for many years.

As such, the Broken Hill Mosque provides rare evidence of the Islamic way of life and strongly demonstrates the early cameleering religious practices.

The building is an example of a typical "Ghan town" mosque used with distinctive local elements, such as the corrugated iron, which is representative of the pioneering days in the far west of NSW.