Oldest Mosque in Australia’s New South Wales to Be Restored
The Broken Hill mosque, built in 1887, is the only surviving mosque constructed by cameleers in Australia.
The building received major structural restoration work last year thanks to funding from the State Government and Broken Hill City Council.
Caretaker Bob Shamroze said that repair work made a big difference, particularly in the mosque's prayer room.
"I didn't like people going in there for a while because it was all crumbly," he said.
"What I was frightened of is people [going] in there and [getting] hurt."
The Broken Hill Historical Society took over management of the mosque in 1967, and in 1968 it was re-dedicated as a place of worship by visiting clerics and opened as a museum.
The State Government has granted the society $102,564 to work with the council and museum experts to establish "interpretive and interactive infrastructure" at the mosque.
Shamroze said that included the preservation of copies of the Quran, nose pegs, hats, paperwork, photos and other historical data-x-items housed inside the mosque.
"There are quite a few photos that have got to be put in place where they're not going to fade," he said.
"[The data-x-items are] quite old and need to be looked after properly, away from dust and light.
"And I think it'll be a lot easier for people to see [them] once they're all marked and numbered and we know what we've got here."
Shamroze has a strong personal connection with the mosque, which had been visited by his father, Shamroze Khan, and his grandfather, Fazulla Ziadulla.
They were camel drivers in the Broken Hill area, something Shamroze did not know for many years.
"I only knew [my dad] as working in the mine and on the tramways, until I got into newspapers where I found out he [was] a camel dealer," he said.
"He brought a lot of camels from Port Augusta to Broken Hill at one stage, with wagons."
Shamroze said he wanted the mosque fully restored before he died, so that a younger generation could properly appreciate its significance.
"I'd like them to know the history of this town and the history of the outback with the camel drivers — what they've done for the country," he said.
"It's a wonderful old building, and you'll never see another one like this in the country."
Source: abc.net.au
