(1244 km west of Sydney)

Trip duration: Four days minimum for a return journey.

On the Road

Depart Sydney via the Great Western Highway, heading beyond the Blue Mountains to the town of Bathurst and linking up with the Mitchell Highway to Orange, Dubbo, Narromine and Nyngan a town in the centre of wool-growing district. From here, take the Barrier Highway, passing through the Outback towns of Cobar and Wilcannia, to Broken Hill a modern city built on the riches of silver mining and an oasis on the rugged red soil plains of Outback New South Wales.

THE FAR WEST

The Far West is a sunbaked, forbidding, yet fascinating region; a large and harsh land with cruel beauty and long silences. In many ways the region was livelier a century ago. Tibooburra and Milparinka were revelling in gold fever, miners in Silverton were picking up pure silver, and White Cliffs at the start of this century was a 5000-strong opal mining community. The riches have since been exhausted, and the towns with them. The only one left is Broken Hill, whose vast deposits of silver and other minerals have made it world famous.

Must see

Cobar, a modern and highly productive copper mine. Near Cobar you can see "Towser’s Huts", mud and stone huts rented out to miners in the 1890s.

Wilcannia

Once the ‘queen city of the west’, this quaint township still has many impressive sandstone buildings. Take the self-guide Historic Town tour of fine stone buildings.

BROKEN HILL "Silver City"

Broken Hill belies its semi-desert location with its green parks and flowering gardens.

The city stands on the richest silver lead-zinc deposit yet discovered, with 1.5 billion dollars of minerals, taken out of the area.

There are many attractions on the self-guided Heritage Trails, including historic streetscape in Arther Street, now classified by the National Trust. Visit the School of the Air and the Royal Flying Doctor Service, 10 km east at the airport.

The city has produced a remarkable number of artists, who have become known as the "Brushmen of the Bush". Also, excellent art from the older times is at the Aboriginal site at Mootwingee, in the Bynguano Range, where there are paintings, stencils and imprints. The historic site and surrounding valleys contain a wealth of Aboriginal relics located in the surrounding national parks.

Silverton, once a thriving silver mining centre. Today it’s an interesting little ghost town, which was used in the films Mad Max II, A Town Like Alice and Razorback. A number of buildings still stand, including the old jail, now an historic museum and the Silvertown Hotel. The Hotel displays photographs taken of the film sets. There are also a couple of artists, Peter Brown and Albert Woodroffe, whose galleries are worth viewing.

The tiny town of Menindee on the banks of the Darling River is on the edge of Kinchega National Park. It is the centre of a water conservation program, that began at Laidleys Pond.

Menindee Lakes, 100km from Broken Hill, is the spot for water sports, fishing and camping.

Kinchega National Park, 110 km south east of Broken Hill, contains the beautiful saucershaped overflow lakes of the Darling River. The lake provides a most important breeding ground for a wide variety of waterbirds, including herons, ibises, spoonbills and black swan. Walking tracks through forests of river red gums and scenic drives follow the course of the river and the lake shores.

For further information, contact:

Broken Hill Tourist Information Centre
Cnr. Blendee and Bromide Streets
BROKEN HILL NSW 2880
Phone: (080) 87 6077
Fax:(080) 88 5206

Acknowledgement

Images courtesy of Tourism New South Wales

Tourism New South Wales releases materials solely for the purpose of positive promotion of New South Wales as a tourism and travel destination. Any breach of this copyright condition could result in legal action.

Click here for other acknowledgement.