New South Wales
NEW SOUTH WALES DISCOVERY PASS Unlimited travel anywhere on the NSW TrainLink Regional train and coach network
ACCOMMODATION: some unique places such as Depot Beach cabins, Pebbly Beach cabins Murramarang National Park, Pretty Beach cabins, Montague Island Lighthouse Keepers’ cottages, Kosciusko National Park, Lane Cover Tourist Park.
Access-friendly experiences
ACCOMMODATION BUBBLE TENT AUSTRALIA
BULAHDELAH Aboriginal Place a drawcard for tourists seeking Indigenous cultural experience
CANOE THE COAST: with the summer 2015 – 2016 series with Aboriginal NPWS ranger and local Gumbaynggirr Elder.
INDIGENOUS TOURISM
Indigenous tourism, in particular, offers a uniquely homegrown escape with the potential to have a deep and profound impact on your soul. There’s such a wide range of experiences on offer and the level of luxury, comfort and physical effort is entirely up to you. And with so many different Indigenous nations within NSW, you don’t need to travel far and wide to immerse yourself in rich and diverse cultures.
BEACHES
- Angourie near Evans Head
- Hyams, Jervis Bay
- Mollymook, Ulladulla
- Newcastle area
- Pebbly Beach, near Batemans Bay
- Seal Rocks, Myall Lakes National Park
- South Plamer, Port Macquarie
- Watergoes, Byron Bay
The Hunter Valley is Australia’s oldest wine growing region and home to well over 100 vineyards. The picturesque region is also a haven for cycling, horse riding, hot air ballooning, golf and gourmet food tasting.
KANDOS once a private village and home to the largest cement works in the southern hemisphere, Kandos is now home to an eclectic array of unique businesses and creative artisans making it a place like no other. Enterprising locals have come up with plenty of ways to welcome visitors to their beloved town. Kandos’ working class heritage from its beginnings with the Cement Works has not been lost, and can be explored and absorbed at the locally run Kandos Museum.
MURWILLUMBAH ARTS TRAIL
OBSERVATORY
- BLUE MOUNTAINS observatory is only available to guests of the cottage. An experience astronomer will conduct a private tour of the night sky with our telescope.
- CSIRO PARKES Meetings are held on the first Friday of every month (January excepted) from 7:30PM in the CSIRO Parkes Observatory Visitors Centre. All are welcome.
- MOUNT STROMLO is in the Australian Capital Territory, the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. The school operates a world-class observatory and has a long history of research and technical activity at the forefront of astronomy and astrophysics. The research interests of our astronomers cover the length and breadth of the field, from planetary science to cosmology, instrumentation to theory.
- OUTBACK ASTRONOMY has a new, permanent home at 18817 Barrier Highway, on the road to Wilcannia, Cobar, Sydney. Locals know it as “the old RFDS Base”, now our “Space Base”.
RAZORBACK BRUCK BLOCKADE MEMORIAL SITE
For 9 days in 1979, 3000 truckies stopped their rigs at the top of Razorback Mountain on the Hume Highway and around the country. With the road blocked in both directions, supermarkets ran out of food and service stations ran out of fuel. Truck drivers were protesting unjust taxes and low freight rates, and the dispute only ended when teh government agreed to scrap the tax.
SKATEBOARDING
Unloved Modern
A meticulously executed conservation and revitalisation project reveals the potential of the much-maligned Nissen hut.
Designed in 1916, the Nissen hut – a semi-cylindrical steel-framed hut – was economical, portable and quickly assembled. Mass-produced in both world wars, they were used as accommodation for defence forces, field hospitals and mess halls. And after World War II, for temporary housing. Our recent conservation project reveals the potential of these modest little shacks and its renewal offers lessons in recycling and downsizing.
WHALE WATCHING: the annual whale migration takes place along the NSW coastline each year, starting in May, when the first whales are spotted migrating north towards warmer waters to breed. Sightings logged via the Wild About Whales smartphone app. Some of the best whale watching spots along the southern NSW coastline include Meroo National Park, Montague Island Nature Reserve, Eurobodalla National Park and Ben Boyd National Park. Australian Geographic named Eden ‘Australia’s best whale watching destination’ in 2014. Eden Whale Festival, a three-day event usually at the end of Oct, early November. The festival blends whale watching opportunities from sea and shore with trips to historic Davidson Whaling Station, live music, huge street parade, fireworks, street theatre, live music, art exhibitions, film and local produce
TOP WHALE WATCHING SPOTS IN NSW
WHERE IN THE WORLD TO WHALE WATCH IF A WHALE COULD BE WATCHED ‘Tis the season for whales to travel north along the NSW coast and we’ve got three beaut spots for you to stay and play with these majestic beings. Spoiler alert: one of them is the only place in the country that you can swim with whales!
NATIONAL PARKS
- Bushwalking Personality Quiz
- Central West nature gems
- Cycling Adventures
- FIVE EASY NSW NATIONAL PARK WALKS WITH KIDS
- GO WITH THE FLOW ON A MURRAY RIVER CANOE TRIP
- HISTORY FROZEN IN STONE – ROAD TRIPPING THROUGH NSW GRANITE COUNTRY
- JOMO IS THE NEW FOMO
- Mungo Shearers’ Quarters
- NINE PLACES TO GET KIDS ON THEIR BIKES
- NINE EPIC THINGS YOU CAN DO ON THE MURRAY RIVER
- Outback Adventures
- SKIING Numbananga Lodge Thredbo-Perisher area in Kosciuszko National Park
- Top Getaways near Sydney
- Top Getaways on the South Coast
- Top Snowy Mountains Getaways
- Top Getaways in Country NSW
- GORGES, TORS & A REALLY BIG ROCK – WELCOME TO NSW GRANITE COUNTRY – Road trip through some of the coolest geology in NSW
Aboriginal culture tours in NSW national parks
WHERE NATURE, CULTURE AND ART COLLIDE
Four places to see Aboriginal rock art and connect to Country in NSW national parks
Itinerary: Darling River Run
THE CUTEST NATIVE ANIMALS IN NSW
We live in the land where the cassowary (basically a living dinosaur) and the platypus (at least three animals mushed together) exist in harmony. Heaps of weird and adorable critters cute enough to rival any introduced species squatting in our national parks and backyards. Do you know what a bandicoot is? Have you seen a baby emu before? Well, you’re about to.
NSW NATIONAL PARKS | EARN YOUR ROAST ALONG THE COAST
The waiter clocks your table number and makes a bee line in your direction. Plates full of steaming hot goodness are headed your way. This is going to be good! But before you tuck into your Sunday Roast – or other select nosh – ask yourself: have you really earned it? Done the work before the rewards, that is… Any surfer will tell you the post-surf pie delivers more! So let’s rethink that Sunday Roast. Check out our list of awesome green adventures – all do-able in only a few short hours. They’ll have you adventuring and earning your roast like a champ.
NSW NATIONAL PARKS Adventure LIst
NSW NATIONAL PARKS: Find things to do
BENTS BASIN: situated close to the Basin swimming lagoon and the Nepean River gorge, it’s a great place for picnics, bush-walks, swimming and canoeing, as well as exploring the Gulguer Nature Reserve. Bents Basin State Conservation Area also runs a volunteer wombat management program helping to locate wombats and their joeys, and assist with preventing a skin condition in wombats known as ‘mange’. Contact the Nattai area office on (02) 4632 4500.
CENTRAL COAST – some of the world’s best beaches. Just 90 minutes drive from Sydney, near Gosford on the Central Coast of NSW, lies Bouddi National Park, a park of treasures that can be uncovered over one or two days. Think stunning secluded beaches, the beautiful Bouddi coastal walk and camping just steps from the ocean.
DORRIGO NATIONAL PARK – If you spot our roving ranger these school holidays, make sure you say ‘hi’. You can ask them any questions you have about Dorrigo National Park.
GWYDIR WETLANDS – Waterbird Lagoon State Conservation Area
KANDOS once a private village and home to the largest cement works in the southern hemisphere, Kandos is now home to an eclectic array of unique businesses and creative artisans making it a place like no other. Enterprising locals have come up with plenty of ways to welcome visitors to their beloved town. Kandos’ working class heritage from its beginnings with the Cement Works has not been lost, and can be explored and absorbed at the locally run Kandos Museum.
BYRON BAY
How to visit Byron Bay on a budget
MURRAY RIVER
Canoe Trails – These 4 canoe trails in Murray Valley National Park and Victoria’s Barmah National Park offer something for every paddler. Canoe the flowing Murray River, secluded creeks or Barmah Lake.
NSW National Parks – Cosy Cabins to Snuggle Up in Winter
MUNGO NATIONAL PARK
Harry Nanya Tours – My name is Graham Clarke I am a traditional Paakantyi Aboriginal. Harry Nanya Tours is my company and for 20 years people from all over the world have been joining me on a journey back in time through this ancient land. Lake Mungo is a part of the Willandra Lakes system, back in 1981 it was listed as a World Heritage site and is now documented as one the oldest places for human occupation dating back to Aboriginal life from around 60,000 years ago to the present day.
The lakes dried up an approximate 18,000 years ago now the shores known as “The Walls of China” or “lunette” for its 30km crescent shape of sand dunes now shows clear evidence of camp fires and cooking hearth of the aboriginal people as they sat around the once full lake. Now with the natural erosion, the shoreline stands with eroding pinnacles of sand and clay in vibrant colours of the earth and breathtaking scenery’s.
ROYAL NATIONAL PARK: from Bundeena to Little Marley Beach, distance approximately 11km, grade easy and there are NO facilities on the walk.
THREDBO VALLYE TRACK: 16.7 km one-way, 8 hours, easy
THE LEGENDARY WOLLEMI PINE – It’s not every day you make one of the most important scientific findings in a century. And this one’s up there with the best: Tutankhamen, Rosetta Stone, the invention of the cronut – and as it were, it happened completely by accident.
YANGA HOMESTEAD and WOODSHED: experience what it was like to live on a 19th Century pastoral station in Yanga National Park. These faithfully-restored structures on the shores of Lake Yanga, originally constructed in the mid-1800s, were the centre of what was once the largest pastoral station in the Murray-Riverina region, followed by a picnic on the bank of the lake. Blessed with 170km of Murrumbidgee River frontage, Yanga National Park’s dramatic landscape of River Red Gums, swamplands and sweeping waterways, make it a great place for canoeing, swimming, fishing and camping.
Holidays by train from Sydney
5 great NSW road trips
Sydney to Melbourne coastal road trip in 3 days
• Day 1: Sydney to South Durras
• Day 2: South Durras to Lakes Entrance
• Day 3: Lakes Entrance to Melbourne
The best Sydney to Melbourne coastal drive, taking in Berry, Mollymook, South Durras and Lakes Entrance.
ROAD TRIPS Experience incredible NSW on a road trip of pleasure and discovery. There are many beautiful tourist drives. Some of the most popular include the Greater Blue Mountains Drive, the Legendary Pacific Coast along the North Coast of NSW, the Grand Pacific Drive from Sydney to Wollongong and the spectacular Kosciuszko Alpine Way in the Snowy Mountains.
CENTRAL TABLELANDS
- Godolphin is an historic Australian property near the Byng settlement in the heart of New South Wales’ Central Tablelands. Since its founder, Richard Glasson, was granted 320 acres in 1851, the property has been expanded over the years and handed down through six generations of his descendents who continue to raise sheep and cattle there today. It is about 35 km west of Bathurst, if coming from Orange measure 16 Km from the giant flagpole as you leave town towards Bathurst and turn left.
- Gillinghall property sits in the beautiful farming country between Mudgee, Dubbo and Orange. How to Farmer Brown’s Pastured Eggs with ‘guardian’ dogs, Italian Maremma Sheepdogs or Cane Da Pastore Maremmano Abruzzese.
- Henry Lawson plaque at the site of his boyhood home at Eurunderee, near Mudgee on Henry Lawson Drive
BUNDANOON Australia’s first bottled water free town
- Yallambee Bed & Breakfast
- Moreton National Park – Gambell’s Rest campground to the abandoned Erith Coal Mine and back
- Glow Worm Glen
YASS
- The Globe Inn Bed & Breakfast
- Thunderbird Motel
- Brindabella National Park
HILL END
BLACKHEATH
my BUCKET LIST
Byron Bay
Coffs Coast
Dubbo: Taronga Western Plains Zoo and overnight at the zoo
Jervis Bay
Jindabyne
Lord Howe Island
Murramarang National Park
Sapphire Coast
Southern Highlands
Tamworth
Tilda