The Great War and the mud and blood of the Western Front seemed a very long way away to the citizens of Broken Hill that January 1. World War 1 was less than five months old, but simmering passions and racial intolerance produced a potent mix which exploded into tragic violence for the people of the Silver City.
The day began with plenty of festive cheer as 1200 men, women and children boarded the Silverton Tramway Company open concentrate trucks for a short rail trip to Penrose Park for the Manchester Unity Lodge annual picnic.
Little did those people know they were about to be dragged into a war taking place half a world away when two Turkish patriots launched their own guerrilla-style military operation – believed to be the only enemy attack to take place on Australian soil during World War I.
Mullah Abdullah and Gool Mohammed raised the Turkish flag over their ice-cream cart and commenced their two-man war. The picnickers saw the men as their train pulled slowly up a hill and some even waved, thinking that the two Muslims touting rifles must have been rabbiting on their day off.
But as the distance between the ice-cream cart and the executioners closed to only 30 metres the Afghans opened fire with their Snider and Martini Henry rifles. Bullets peppered the train and the wagons’ low sides left the unsuspecting picnickers completely exposed.
Ten passengers were hit; three killed instantly, including 17-year-old Alma Cowie and Alf Millard, a pipeline inspector who was cycling beside the train.
Following the shooting the two men fled and were later holed up at a location known as White Rocks – where a replica ice-cream cart stands today.
Local militiamen, police and the rifle brigade closed in and after hundreds of rounds of ammunition had been exchanged, the stronghold was rushed where Mullah Abdullah was found dead and Gool Mohammed so severely injured that he died in hospital a few hours later.
One further victim fell during the fighting. Jim Craig was chopping wood in his backyard near White Rocks and was killed by a stray bullet.
