Charles Rasp, a former German officer who deserted from the Franco-Prussian war and then worked as a boundary rider on a sheep station in western New South Wales, discovered silver and lead in an area known as Broken Hill.  Certain that he had made a rich find, he paid for one of the biggest mining leases taken out in Australia at the time – on land that had been taken from the Wilyakali, Barkandji and other First Nations who had lived there for over 45,000 years. The creeping violence of settler colonialism was already decimating their population and destroying their way of life based on access to the water systems and the ability to travel over a large area of land when Rasp claimed his find.

https://www.bhp.com/our-approach/our-history/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paakantyi

https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/bioregions/BrokenHillComplex-RegionalHistory.htm

https://londonminingnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Martial-Mining.pdf