Kevin ‘Bushy’ White

Former miner turned mineral collector, artist, and museum owner, Kevin ‘Bushy’ White was first enchanted by the glitter of the deep-underground while he was working as a miner for the Zinc Corporation in the early 1970s. His wonder led to a vast body of work, based on old black and white photographs, which represents Broken Hill’s richly diverse history. His artist’s palette was, unconventionally, rare minerals rather than paint. 

Bushy White grew up in Broken Hill, near the town’s water supply at Water Works Hill surrounded by bush. As a boy his favourite sport was chasing kangaroos and rabbits and, since his mates always seemed to be saying he was ‘up the bush’, he’s been known as Bushy ever since. He left school aged 14, and by the time he was 15 was working on a sheep station in western Victoria. 

When he returned to Broken Hill aged 20 to work in the mines, Kevin fell in love with Betty. They married in 1967. It was Betty that he first told about his inspiration to use crushed minerals as an artistic medium for recording the social history of Broken Hill: from the underground environment he worked in to the above ground industrial structures he loved; from the horse-drawn carts and pulleys of the 1880s through to the increased mechanisation of the 1980s. He used up to 50 different minerals, crushed and mixed with glue, including Galena: the natural mineral form of lead; sparkling Malachite; Sphalerite: a zinc ore; white Feldspar and deep blue Azurite. 

In 1983, Bushy and his family started to build a museum. He gave up working underground in 1987 to become a security officer for the mines, and then an ambulance driver until 1992 when the museum was finally open to the public. 

Bushy White created over 1000 mineral work pictures each expressing his love of Broken Hill and his knowledge of its rich and fascinating history. Not only is the Silver City home to some of the rarest minerals in the world, but to the Labor movement, trade unionism, and bush regeneration ecology. It is also the heart of the thriving visual art culture of the far west of NSW, of which Kevin Bushy White was an important part. 

Bushy died at Broken Hill in September 2021. His legacy will live on through his museum in Allendale Street Broken Hill. 

Audio transcript available.