NSW, 800,642 sq km (Britannica)

Sometimes New South Wales is considered by caravanners as just a hurdle to get through on the way north to better weather. We had wandered about a bit but hadn’t dedicated enough time to exploring NSW until Winter 2020. Victoria was locked down and the Qld government was spending a lot of time yah yahing about whether to let Victorians in who were waiting in NSW to head north. We gave up waiting and decided to spend a much longer winter break exploring NSW. This decision turned out to be a highlight of the Covid years.

To best describe our favourite places in NSW I think I’ll try a different method this time and work across the state from west to east along the most popular routes.

Outback

Broken Hill, what can I say, it is as quirky as every movie that has ever been made there. It is a place of contrasts. Of heavy mining, of colourful art and of harsh desert landscapes. The Living Desert sculpture park is not to be missed, take a bottle of fine bubbles and toast the desert sundown. Pro Hart’s gallery gives an insight into a complex character who made us laugh and produced a body of work as large as himself. The Line of Lode memorial to the hundreds of miners killed below your feet will bring tears to your eyes. Art galleries dotted about town and the iconic Palace Hotel of Priscilla Queen of the Desert fame is a gallery in itself with every inch of wall and ceiling a riot of colour.  There’s the Royal Flying Doctor Base tour, and the still operational Bell’s Milk Bar. There’s a bloody good train museum and of course the crazy little town of Silverton. Not to be missed are the Silverton pub and the Daydream silver mine. Did I say quirky? They run on South Australian time not NSW time and your iphone will know that. We spent a week in this town and loved every minute of it. Broken Hill is unique.

No trip to Broken Hill is complete without a visit to the Menindee lakes. Copi Hollow Is part of the Menindee Lakes system on the Darling River. Back in 1860 the Burke and Wills expedition passed through here on their fateful trip north*. Kinchega Woolshed on the Darling River gives some insight into the life of sheep farmers in the early days but the huge woolshed is only half of what it once was when bales were shipped by paddle steamer down the Darling River to market. We stayed at the Copi Hollow Caravan Park but there is also loads of freedom camping along the Darling and lake shores.

*I had a chuckle reading Wikipedia’s account of the Burke and Wills expedition and that the party took two months to reach Menindee, when the mail coach could do the same journey in a week. I guess the mail coach wasn’t burdened by 26 men, 6 wagons, 26 camels, 23 horses, a dining table, 2 chairs, 20 tonnes of supplies, and a Chinese gong.

Note: There are a lot of emus about in this region and as emus do, they seem to take great delight in matching your speed, overtaking and then running across the road in front of you. As the song goes, “they can run the pants off a kangaroo”.