Visit Outback NSW

Hay is a delightful township and home to the spectacular new attraction SHEAR OUTBACK – The Australian Shearers’ Hall of Fame. Set in the heart of the Riverina and on the eastern edge of the New South Wales Outback, Hay is located 728 km west of Sydney via the Great and Mid Western Highways it is set beside the Murrumbidgee River at the junction of the Sturt, Cobb and Mid Western Highways and is about halfway between Sydney and Adelaide. For people travelling from the east this is the beginning of the real Outback.

Hillston is the largest town in the Carrrathool Shire although this still means that it is really a small and quiet country town with a population of around 1000 people. Located 678 km west of Sydney via the Great and Mid Western Highways, Hillston is a typical service centre.

Originally gazetted as Pooncaira' in 1863, the area was first 'established' by Europeans in the 1840's as settlers took up illegal livestock runs on crown land. By the 1860's the federal government, in an attempt to gain control of the area, formalised these illegal (and unfenced) claims.

'Magnificent trees droop like willows to the waters edge with evening's mildest radiance in their foliage, throwing a soft haze over the distance...' Charles Sturt 1844.

Wentworth is located at the junction of Australia's two great rivers - The Murray and The Darling. Originally named Hawdon's Ford, it was surveyed in 1858 and named Wentworth in 1859 after the Australian explorer, journalist and politician William Charles Wentworth.