Itineraries Home » New South Wales Itineraries » Sydney to Broken Hill Road Trip (NSW Outback) » Enroute to the NSW outback
This post is a continuation of Sydney to Broken Hill Road Trip and covers the onward journey from Sydney to the NSW outback. By the end of this post, you would have learnt what you can experience enroute to White Cliffs, which to us, is the entrance to the NSW outback.
Sydney to Broken Hill Road Trip
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Day 1 - Sydney to Mudgee
Sydney to Mudgee takes around 4 hours. Our first stop was The Big Miner's Lantern, slightly over 2 hours from Sydney, which houses the Lithgow Visitor Information Centre.
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As you could have seen from our Orange post, we are huge fans of Australia's Big Things and the Big Miner's Lantern is no exception! In fact, this Sydney to Broken Hill trip will cover a lot of such beautiful and interesting Big Things throughout!! A quick introduction to Australia's Big Things: The Big Things is a set of about 150 oversized structures sprinkled across the nation, which serve as some of the country’s top tourist attractions. These can be found along major highways and between popular destinations, thereby being as not only popular tourist attractions but also as great rest stops when you are on long road trips. The Big Miner’s Lantern represents the coal mining activity that helped the region’s economic growth. After taking loads of photos of the Big Miner's Lantern and a visit inside the Information Centre for some souvenirs, we headed to Mudgee Visitor Information Centre. |
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The staff at the Information Centre were very friendly and knowledgeable. We shopped for souvenirs, collected some maps & information booklets, and had our picnic lunch in the nearby park. We then headed to our hotel Mudgee Valley Park and checked in. Everyone had a short rest break followed by a visit to The Drip Gorge. The Drip Gorge can be accessed via The Drip Walking Track and the commencement point for this walk is The Drip carpark.
| The Drip Walking Track - Key Facts | |
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| Trailhead | The Drip Carpark |
| Trail Type | Out & Back |
| Distance | 2.8km return |
| Duration | 1hr - 1hr 30min |
| Accumulated Elevation Gain | 70m |
| Difficulty | Grade 3 |
It's a beautiful walk through the bush beside the Goulburn River and it was naturally cool here despite a very hot day outside. After enjoying the spectacular views from The Drip Lookout, we spent some time splashing around in the Goulburn River while the kids took a quick swim in the river.
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After dinner, we headed to Mudgee Observatory for a night tour of the sky!
Call or Email Mudgee Observatory to pre-book your visit as the spots quickly sell out, especially during weekends and holidays! Up-to-date information about the timings, tickets, and contact can be found on their official website. The tour lasted for around 1.5 hours and was both entertaining and informational. After enjoying the excellent views of the planets and the stars, we then headed back to our hotel for a good night's sleep!
Note: If you have got some more time in the region, you can also visit Castle Rocks for some spectacular views of the sunset. Mudgee also has got some of the finest wineries in the country so give them a try while you're in town.
Day 2 - Mudgee to Cobar
Mudgee to Cobar takes slightly less than 5 hours. After breakfast, we headed to Putta Bucca Wetlands.
The wetland, which is now a public reserve, was once a disused quarry that is now filled with fresh water and is home to an abundance of wildlife. We walked the Putta Bucca Wetlands River Loop and thoroughly enjoyed the walk.
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| Putta Bucca Wetlands River Loop - Key Facts | |
|---|---|
| Trailhead | Putta Bucca Wetlands Carpark |
| Trail Type | Loop |
| Distance | 1.3km |
| Duration | 30min |
| Accumulated Elevation Gain | 13m |
| Difficulty | Grade 2 |
We then headed to Cobar with an interim stop at The Big Bogan, in the town of Nyngan.
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After stretching our legs and taking loads of photos of the Big Bogan, we went on to have our lunch in Nyngan and resumed our journey to Cobar. Our next stop was The Big Beer Can in Cobar, which sits atop the Grand Hotel. |
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Not only had The Big Beer Can secured a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest beer can but also won the title of "The Best Big Attraction in Australia" so the visit to this attraction was special! It takes 22,000 litres of real beer to fill the Big Beer Can!! We then checked into our hotel Copper City Hotel and finished our day with a visit to Fort Bourke Hill Lookout, where you can witness the spectacular open pit and entrance to the underground mine from a safe viewing platform.
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Day 3 - Cobar to White Cliffs
We will be on the road today for slightly over 5 hours. After breakfast, our first stop was the Cobar Miners Heritage Park.
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Throughout the park, objects related to mining are displayed to showcase Cobar’s rich mining history and the Cobar Miners Memorial situated within the park commemorates those who have died in the local mines as well as from mining related diseases.
Note: If you have got some more time in the region:
- Visit Mt Grenfell Historic Site in Cubba (70km northwest of Cobar) to explore some amazing aboriginal rock art but be aware that much of the drive to the site is on a gravel road!
- Also, The Great Cobar Museum and Information Centre is a great place to learn about the deep history of Cobar.
Our next stop was Emmdale Roadhouse.
We stopped here to grab our lunch takeaways as there are no other restaurants between here and our next stop, that is Paroo-Darling National Park. The roadhouse serves some fantastic burgers, so go try them! The roadhouse also has fuel and restrooms. We then headed to Paroo-Darling National Park however when we reached Wilcannia, we found out that the roads to Paroo-Darling National Park were closed due to flooding so we had to skip this beautiful place, unfortunately! However, if Paroo-Darling National Park is open when you visit, head to Peery Lake Picnic Area to explore this birdwatching paradise at your own pace.
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Note: It is always recommended to take a photo of the road operation signs prior to entering an outback road so that you can show it to the authorities in case of a change in road conditions that occurred after you entered the road.
We then headed to White Cliffs, New South Wales’s underground mining town. For many, if asked about underground towns in Australia, White Cliffs in NSW remains an unknown while they can easily identify Coober Pedy in South Australia. The town of White Cliffs is home to Australia's oldest commercial opal field and incorporates underground houses (known as, dugouts!) that provide shelter from the sweltering heat in the region. Even a few minutes outside will drain and tire you so quickly; the temperature outside was 42°C on our day of visit.
The drive from Wilcannia to White Cliffs and back is unforgettable for us, as we encountered emus on the road multiple times (even in the middle of the day!) and a couple of these encounters were very scary (or exciting, should I say!) as the mobs appeared so close to us on the road from nowhere and we had to stop our car really hard to avoid them!
Upon arriving at White Cliffs, we headed to White Cliffs Underground Motel and checked in for our stay. The White Cliffs Underground Motel is a unique stay, I’d say! The rooms are basically dugouts that are connected to each other and being underground, the motel remains a constant and comfortable 22°C to 23°C, all year, despite the searing heat outside. Due to the nature of the dugouts, there are no private bathrooms in the motel rooms however there are plenty of them to share so no complaints.
We settled into our allocated room and had a nice rest for the afternoon. We then had our dinner and climbed up the top of the hill via the stairs in the motel for a nice view of the sunset. Back to our room, we went to bed for a good night’s sleep! I should say, the stay was very comfortable in addition to also being one of its kind!
We settled into our allocated room and had a nice rest for the afternoon. We then had our dinner and climbed up the top of the hill via the stairs in the motel for a nice view of the sunset. Back to our room, we went to bed for a good night’s sleep! I should say, the stay was very comfortable in addition to also being one of its kind!
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Now that we are in White Cliffs, this marks the completion of this post!! To learn more about what you can expect and experience in the outback, please read our post below.
Out & About In The NSW Outback
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