Day 1 Sunday Arrive in Broken Hill on Indian Pacific. You will be met by Host from Silver City Tours and escorted to accommodation. Silverton Ghost Town and City Sights and Heritage Tour This morning we visit Australia's liveliest ghost town and setting for many movies. See craft centres, galleries and museums, and the historical Silverton Hotel. In the afternoon enjoy the City Sights and Heritage tour.

Day 2 Monday Wetlands Cruise, Menindee & Kinchega National Park Enjoy a leisurely tour around the Menindee Lakes scheme. Travel to Menindee and on to Kinchega National Park. Relax on a cruise through the wetlands aboard the "River Lady".

Day 3 Tuesday Royal Flying Doctor Service & Taste of the Artback After breakfast we visit the famous Royal Flying Doctor Service. This afternoon you will have the opportunity to discover what Broken Hill is becoming famous for - art, with a tour of some of the local galleries. You will be transferred to rail for return trip to Sydney on Indian Pacific.

All package tours are subject to availability of accommodation, for further information please contact Silver City Tours.

Pick up Point
Rail Transfers and from accommodation

Day 1 Tuesday or Friday Arrive in Broken Hill on Indian Pacific. You will be met by Host from Silver City Tours and escorted to accommodation.

Day 2 Wednesday or Saturday City Sights and Heritage Tour & Sunset Sculptures Symposium. This morning enjoy the City Sights and Heritage tour. In the afternoon you will visit the Sculpture Symposium at sunset.

Day 3 Thursday or Sunday You will be transferred to rail for return trip to Adelaide on Indian Pacific. All package tours are subject to availability of accommodation, for further information please contact Silver City Tours.

Pick up Point
Rail Transfers and from accommodation

Day 1 Monday Arrive in Broken Hill on Outback Explorer. You will be met by Host from Silver City Tours and escorted to accommodation.

Day 2 Tuesday City Sights and Heritage Tour. This morning enjoy the City Sights and Heritage tour. The afternoon is at leisure for you to explore the “Silver City” at your own pace.

Day 3 Wednesday Wetlands Cruise, Menindee & Kinchega National Park. Enjoy a leisurely tour around the Menindee Lakes scheme. Travel to Menindee and on to Kinchega National Park. Relax on a cruise through the wetlands aboard the “River Lady”.

Day 4 Thursday Silverton Ghost Town. After a free morning, in the afternoon we visit Australia’s liveliest ghost town and setting for many movies. See craft centres, galleries and museums, and the historical Silverton Hotel.

Day 5 Friday Royal Flying Doctor Service & Taste of the Artback. After breakfast we visit the famous Royal Flying Doctor Service. This afternoon you will have the opportunity to discover what Broken Hill is becoming famous for – art, with a tour of some of the local galleries.

Day 6 Saturday White Cliffs. Today we head to Australia’s oldest commercial opal fields. See Australia’s first solar power station. You’ll visit underground dwellings and opal showrooms, a chance to purchase opals direct from the source.

Day 7 Sunday Sunset Sculptures Symposium. This morning a sleep in. In the afternoon you will visit the Sculpture Symposium at sunset.

Day 8 Monday A free day to explore Broken Hill at your own pace.

Day 9 Tuesday You will be transferred to rail for return trip to Sydney on Indian Pacific or CountryLink Outback Explorer. All package tours are subject to availability of accommodation, for further information please contact Silver City Tours.

Day 1 Wednesday (Home/Dubbo) Travel from home to Dubbo via Countrylink. On reaching Dubbo we transfer to the wonderful Western Plains Zoo. This open-range zoo specialises in large animals which are separated from the public by creating raised earthen viewing areas below which is typically a ditch or moat with a small unobtrusive electric fence. This provides a feeling of naturalness. There are more than 800 native and exotic species dispersed over 300 ha of landscaped parklands. The park is divided into Africa, Asia, North America, Eurasia and Australia. Africa comes first for the obvious reason that it contains many of the most crowd-pleasing species - Cape hunting dogs, zebras, giraffes, hippos, elephants, camels, Barbary sheep, lions, cheetahs, eland, sitatunga etc. It is a treat to feed the giraffes and watch those incredibly long prehensile tongues come curling and grasping out of those remarkable necks. Rare and endangered species such as the southern white rhinoceros, Galapagos tortoise, the bison and the Przewalski horse are bred at the zoo. The Bengal tiger and white tiger and the extraordinary vocalising of the Siamangs are also highlights. Less dramatic but more endearing are the ring-tailed lemur, the meerkats, the echidna and the small fenced area where children can pat antelopes and other hoofed animals. Late afternoon we check in to our accommodation.

Day 2 Thursday (Dubbo/Bourke) Up bright and early as we depart Dubbo and travel along the Mitchell Highway through Trangie and Nyngan, situated on the Bogan River.  Nyngan is a beautiful little town, with a population of less than 2,500 people.  Continue on to Coolabah where we leave the highway and make our way to Brewarrina.    There can be few more charming outback towns in Australia than Brewarrina. With a town population of about 1500 and a further 1500 living on properties around the town it has just the right number of people to give it a sense of purpose and stability without losing the lazy rural character which hasn't changed for decades. The wide main street, the old style pubs, the easy lifestyle, the beautiful parks by the Darling - Barwon River, the local newspaper produced fortnightly by the local Chamber of Commerce and the historic court house and Anglican Church make it much more than just another country town.  Lunch and local guide at the Brewarrina Information Centre and then it’s off to the Brewarrina Fish Traps.  Of all the attractions the town offers none can compare with the stone fisheries on the bed of the Darling River just downstream from the weir. The fisheries are pieces of masterful ingenuity designed to trap the fish and to be sealed off so that the fishermen can catch and kill the fish at their leisure.  Early afternoon we make the trip into Bourke.  Bourke is, by any measure, a thriving country town with a population around 3500 and a sense of prosperity which is the result of its geographic importance as the centre of a large wool, cotton and citrus area. The prosperity of the town belies the assessments of the first Europeans who travelled through the area. When Charles Sturt passed through the district in 1828 he thought that the whole area was 'unlikely to become the haunt of civilized man'. The area around Bourke has a strong grazing background producing some 55,000 bales of wool annually.  After a guided tour of Bourke with a local, we set down at our accommodation.

Day 3 Friday (Bourke/Trilby Station) Bourke is a charming town on the banks of the Darling and was established as a paddle steamer destination. A modern day replica of a paddle steamer, the 'Jandra' gives us a chance during an hour cruise to experience the Darling of old. Following the cruise, we visit the Back o’ Bourke Exhibition Centre and historic cemetery.   This is the burial site of the renowned Professor Fred Hollows.  An hour or two here spent browsing the inscriptions will take us back into a world of bushrangers and drovers, cameleers and riverboat men, lost children and local heroes.  Lunch at the Oxley RSL.  From here we make our way through Gundamooka to Louth.  Enjoy afternoon tea at the local Pub, have a look around then continue to Trilby Station.  Here we experience a taste of life on a working sheep and cattle station in Australia's vast interior - the legendary NSW Outback.

Day 4 – Saturday (Trilby Station/Menindee) This morning we take a tour of Trilby Station with owner, Liz before heading to Menindee.  Enroute we’ll stop off at the Tilpa Pub – a must see.  This 100-year old attraction, made from corrugated iron and timber, is the place to come to meet the local characters and hear true stories and tall tales from this part of the world.  The inner walls of this authentic bush pub are covered with the autographs, dry wit, and messages from the hundreds of people who stop there each year. For a small fee you can pen a message or poem too.  The money raised goes to support the Flying Doctor Service, the medical corps of the Outback.  After lunch we continue through Wilcannia. Wilcannia, once the ‘queen city of the west’, still has many impressive sandstone buildings.  It was proclaimed a town in 1864 and was a key inland port in the days of paddlesteamers.  Declining in the early 1920s with the advent of the car, today it is the service centre for a far-flung rural population.  On reaching Menindee Lakes we join the 3.30 pm Wetlands Cruise on the Lakes. Dinner at the famous Maiden’s Hotel before setting down at our accommodation.

Day 5 – Sunday (Menindee/Mungo NP) After a tour of Menindee we make our way to Mungo National Park.  Lake Mungo is one of 17 dry lakes which constitute the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area, declared in 1981. The stark, silent, desolate and sometimes eerie landscape of sand, sparse but resurgent vegetation, and spiny, hard, pitted, crinkled and fluted dunes and ridges can look more like a moonscape. 25 000 to 45 000 years ago the lake covered 135 square kilometres and was about 10m deep. It was one of a series of freshwater lakes along Willandra Creek, which was then a major branch of the Lachlan River. The lakes dried up about 14 000 years ago. They are, however, an extraordinarily rich source of fossils.  Prior to being declared a National Park in 1979 this land was part of Mungo sheep station, created when the Gol-Gol station was subdivided in the 1920s for returned soldiers. The park still contains a 45-m woolshed, built by Chinese labour of local pine logs in 1869. There are other buildings, including a former homestead, relating to the sheep station. Squatters first arrived with their sheep in 1840. Considerable conflict ensued with the indigenous tribes - the Barkindji, Ngiyampaa and Mutthi Mutthi, descendants of the area's ancient inhabitants. However, many were decimated by European diseases and forced to live on a mission at Balranald. Today they are involved in the management of the park and their wishes concerning the handling of their dead ancestors are now respected.   Today the vegetated dry lake basins are situated within a dunefield stabilised by mallee-type vegetation. Tall, steep escarpments abut the western perimeters of the lakes with crescent-shaped dunes called lunettes to the east, formed by quartz sands and pelletised clay, blown from the lake by the westerly winds. The most famous example of a lunette in the park is the 'Walls of China' which rises to 30 m above the plain and runs for some 30 km around the old lake's eastern shore. After arriving and settling in to Mungo Lodge, we’ll spend some time exploring this wonderful area with a local whilst watching the sunset.

Day 6 – Monday (Mungo NP/Wentworth/Broken Hill) After breakfast today we make our way into Wentworth, situated at the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers.  Captain Charles Sturt arrived at the junction in 1830 and Europeans first began to settle here in the 1840’s.  For over 70 years Wentworth was the nucleus of river trade between New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.  Today, Wentworth still exudes an ‘old town’ atmosphere.  During a tour of Wentworth, with a local guide, we stop briefly at Fotherby Park to view the monument to ‘Possum’, a legendary character, who spent some 50 years of his life living along the Murray River.  After lunch we continue to Broken Hill.

Day 7 – Tuesday (Broken Hill/Home) (B)All good things must come to an end and our Darling River sojourn is no exception. Transfer to the Broken Hill Station for our Countrylink journey home.

Day 1 – Saturday (Home/Dubbo) (D) Depart Sydney on Countrylink and travel to Dubbo. In reaching Dubbo at around 1.30 pm we’ll transfer to our accommodation. Free afternoon to explore Dubbo at leisure or relax at our motel.  Lunch - own arrangements & own expense.

Day 2 – Sunday (Dubbo/Warrumbungles/Dubbo) (BLD) After a hearty breakfast we’re off to the magnificent Warrumbungle National Park. The Warrumbungle National Park is an area of forested ridges, barren spires and deep gorges resulting from the erosion of the volcano which formed the area between 17 and 13 million years ago. The rich diversity of plant life is a reflection of the varied landscape and soil patterns. It is often described as the place where east meets west because the flora of the dry western plains overlaps with that of the moist east coast. Animals are also seen in abundance particularly the Eastern Grey Kangaroo, but emus, wallabies, koalas and a wide variety of birds are also seen regularly. There are some interesting tropical organisms and some are endangered. Late afternoon we return to our accommodation.Packed lunch today.

Day 3 – Monday (Dubbo) (BLD) A leisurely start to the day before we make our way to Western Plains Zoo. This zoo specializes in large animals which are separated from the public by creating raised earthen viewing areas below which is typically a ditch or moat. This provides a feeling of naturalness. There are more than 800 native and exotic species dispersed over 300 ha of landscaped parklands. The park is divided into Africa, Asia, North America, Eurasia and Australia. Africa comes first for the obvious reason that it contains many of the most crowd-pleasing species - Cape hunting dogs, zebras, giraffes, hippos, elephants, camels, Barbary sheep, lions, cheetahs, eland, sitatunga etc. Rare and endangered species such as the southern white rhinoceros, Galapagos tortoise, the bison and the Przewalski horse are bred at the zoo. The Bengal tiger and white tiger and the extraordinary vocalising of the Siamangs are also highlights. Less dramatic but more endearing are the ring-tailed lemur, the meerkats, the echidna and the small fenced area where children can pat antelopes and other hoofed animals. Lunch at the Zoo before we return to town for some free time.  After an early dinner we’re off to the Dubbo Observatory, where our visit involves a slide show about the universe before we proceed outside where three twelve-inch telescopes are in use. Fully-computerized, they can locate 64 000 different objects at the touch of a button.

Day 4 – Tuesday (Dubbo) (BLD) This morning we travel to Parkes.  Parkes possesses an expanding economy and population, thanks in part to a wool combing plant and the North Parkes copper and gold mine, the largest metal mine in NSW, which opened in 1994. It is a major wheat-storage centre in a rural district that also produces other crops, wool and livestock.   From 1959-1961 the CSIRO built the first big-dish antenna radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere to the north of Parkes. One of the world's most powerful it has played a vital role in the detection of quasars and pulsars. Of some historic interest is the fact poet Harry Morant, made famous by the 1980 film, Breaker Morant, worked as a stockman in the area shortly before enlisting for the Boer War, during which, he was executed by the British authorities. Here we visit the CSIRO Radio Telescope – also famous for its role in the movie ‘The Dish’.  Continue south where we stop off at the Alpaca Country Shop where we enjoy an Alpaca Information Talk and lunch.  This promises to be a fun experience. Continue to Wellington where we explore the wonderful Wellington Caves.  Wellington Caves are thought to have been discovered in 1830 by a colonist, George Ranken, who accidentally fell into the entrance of one of the caves. Today, two caves are open for public inspection - the Cathedral Cave and the Gaden Cave. The Cathedral Cave is a vast area where visitors are confronted by a truly gigantic stalagmite, regarded as one of the largest in the world. This imposing formation rises from the dry earth covered floor to a height of about 15m and measures about 32m around the base. Illuminated by hidden lights, it has a majestic appearance and is popularly known as 'the Madonna'. The Gaden Cave is smaller in comparison to the Cathedral Cave, but has unusual and exquisite formations. In the grounds is a large aviary containing many colourful Australian birds. The last leg of our journey today sees us return to Dubbo.

Day 5 – Wednesday (Dubbo) (B)Spend today in Dubbo.  Dubbo is an important business and commercial regional centre and one of Australia’s fastest growing inland cities.  Although essentially a modern city, Dubbo has retained much of its heritage, which can be seen in its colonial architecture, particularly Old Dubbo Gaol. After a tour of the city we make our way to the Gaol.  Dubbo Gaol is a well-preserved incarceration centre, which was built c.1871 and which closed in 1966. Now a museum, it offers an opportunity to see the way the gaol and the judicial system once operated. Features include a sizeable collection of animatronic models which tell the life stories of inmates and staff, a gallows pole with hangman's equipment (eight men were hung at the gaol), the condemned man's cell, solitary confinement cells, a graffiti cell, a padded cell, the watchtower, the exercise yard, a display room, the bathroom, hospital, kitchen, sanitary disposal block and wood-cutting area.   After lunch (own arrangements & own expense) we transfer to the railway station for our 2.10 departure.

Overnight: Home, sweet home…