Broken Hill to Newcastle

Patto44 · Senior Member

Broken Hill to Newcastle

Ron and Shirley · Senior Member

Can recommend the Riverside CP at Nyngan, particularly the section down by the water where you can have a campfire in the drums provided.

Been years since we stayed at Cobar but the park there still gets good reviews from what I have seen.

Wilcannia, we have not stayed there, preferring to bush camp at Wilga in the Darling Paroo NP, but have stopped on many occasions, had coffee and walked around the town. Interesting town with some old buildings, well worth a look.

BTW if you need fuel at Wilcannia go to the BP Depot one block off the main street as it is usually much cheaper than the Shell servo on the main street.

Ma · Guru

You must have been lucky R & S. When we stopped in Wilcannia last year there wasn't anywhere to have coffee except the Shell servo and at $1.96pl for diesel gave it a miss and went round to the BP Depot and got a tank full of rubbish.

The shops were all closed down and all the windows smashed and quite a few groups of not so honest looking people congregating on each street corner and having as close a look as possible as to what you had in your vehicle.

You are right though, there are some interesting buildings in Wilcannia but we could only drive past and have a look, for obvious reasons. They were doing quite a bit of restoration work on the Police Station and Post Office and the Wayside Inn. I think the stimulus money could have been spent on something more beneficial for the locals instead of doing up the facade on these buildings though.

rosco · Senior Member

Check out this site http://www.caravanparkphotos.com.au/caravan_parks.htm

and this one http://home.vicnet.net.au/~badger04/

Both great sites for checking out caravan parks.

Like others, we didnt stop at Wilcannia, which is a shame, because it had a few nice buildings I would have liked to photograph. Wilcannia's reputation precedes it. We noticed a congregation of the local youths standing near the bridge, and while we tried not to look at them they certainly gave us the eye as we passed. Some time later whilst at Mildura we had our car serviced and one of the mechanics was telling us a favourite ploy at Wilcannia is for one of the youths to lay down on the bridge when a car is coming. When the car stops the others surround it asking for money. Dont know how true this is.

-- Edited by rosco on Thursday 8th of September 2011 02:30:21 PM

Cruising Granny · Guru

The law of the bush is never, repeat NEVER stop at Wilcannia. No one stopped us, but just drive over the bridge and keep going. The locals still hover. I went through there in 1972 and the locals were hovering then too. Some things never change.
The park at Cobar looked alright from the road back in May when I passed through there. We camped at the truckie pad and in the light of early morning it looked quite nice. I'd camp there if I needed to.

NeilandRaine · Guru

We came across from Newcastle earlier this year. Check out our web site (trip 2011) it tells the spots we stayed at, free and parks. It might help.
We stopped at Wicannia, every thing is expensive but the park is fine. If your buying fuel go to the BP depot it is about 10 cents a litre cheaper than shell.
You will miss a lot of history if you dont stopin Wilcannia.

Also should of said Wilcannia has been cleaned up a lot.

-- Edited by NeilandRaine on Thursday 8th of September 2011 03:21:15 PM

gst · Senior Member

stayed at Cobar Last Year Very good van Park

Gerty Dancer · Guru

Cruising Granny wrote:
The law of the bush is never, repeat NEVER stop at Wilcannia. No one stopped us, but just drive over the bridge and keep going. The locals still hover. I went through there in 1972 and the locals were hovering then too. Some things never change.
The park at Cobar looked alright from the road back in May when I passed through there. We camped at the truckie pad and in the light of early morning it looked quite nice. I'd camp there if I needed to.

Several years ago, on a bus of Sing Australia members, we stopped and had a sing with the local Sing Australia group, then with a group of locals down near the river. We were fine, nobody said or did anything to cause any problem. We had lunch at the golf club, they were pleased to see us as so many people go straight through, and its not helping the community.

Having said that, I'm not confident about staying there in a caravan. Two of us is a lot different from a busload.