Best Inverell accommodation, cafes and things to do

Nestled in the Macintyre Valley, the Sapphire City of Inverell is a historic New England town with one of the state’s biggest lakes on its doorstep.

The architecture in Inverell is one of the first things to make a good impression.

Shops, cafes and pubs feature beautiful historic facades, while the pretty pink courthouse and charming post office are among the heritage-listed buildings dotted around town.

Visit this New England town to discover vintage and futuristic cars at the National Transport Museum, imagine country life in days gone by at Pioneer Village, and try your hand at fossicking for sapphires and other gems.

When to visit Inverell

Autumn is one of the most popular times to visit Inverell, when guests can enjoy mild temperatures and the changing colours of the trees.

Winters are a quieter time of year. Crisp mornings turn into relatively warm days, with average temperatures ranging from 0 to 16°C.

The country town of Inverell in the New England region of NSW. — Tinges of pink colour the building of Inverell. (Image: Destination NSW)

In spring, when the flowers are in full bloom, the Sapphire City Festival adds extra fun for the whole family.

Summer days have an average top temperature of 30°C, a time when swimming and watersports at Copeton Dam are more popular than ever.

How to get to Inverell

Inverell is just over a five-hour drive and 430 kilometres from Brisbane along the National Highway, and around seven hours and 589 kilometres via the New England Highway and Thunderbolts Way from Sydney.

It’s also one of the main stops along the Gwydir Highway, with Glen Innes 67 kilometres to the east and Warialda 61 kilometres to the west.

Inverell Airport is 15 kilometres out of town and is serviced by Link Airways (formerly Fly Corporate), with direct flights to Brisbane and flights to Sydney via Narrabri.

Inverell Local Courthouse, Inverell — Take in the historic buildings around town, like Heritage-listed Inverell Local Courthouse. (Image: Destination NSW)

Inverell accommodation

Historic estates, luxury above-the-pub stays and lakeside cabins are just some of your options when staying in Inverell.

Inverell hotels and motels

Blair Athol Boutique Hotel

From the antique four-poster beds down to the silver shell butter trays at breakfast, there’s beauty all around at Blair Athol Boutique Hotel .

Built in 1904, Manor House has retained many of its original features, including ornate pressed metal ceilings and open fireplaces, although some changes have been made to ensure every room now has an ensuite.

Book ahead to secure a spot in the Blair Athol Day Spa, which is open to guests and non-guests alike on weekends. Inspired by Roman baths, the spa has a mineral-rich pool, as well as an infrared sauna, treatment rooms for massages and facials, and a terrace with views reaching as far as the Queensland border.

Blair Athol Estate room, Inverell — Enjoy the old-world glam of some original features of this boutique hotel, built in 1904.

Oxford on Otho

After two years of renovations, the Oxford on Otho is preparing to launch its new luxury accommodation in November 2022. The old layout of 17 rooms with two shared bathrooms has been completely overhauled to instead offer eight rooms with ensuites, as well as a two-storey family suite (to come in 2023).

Exposed brick, polished floorboards, pressed tin features and quality furnishings are just some of the elements in this stylish, contactless and key-free stay.

Oxford On Otho, Inverell — Stay in the stylish offerings of this brand new hotel. (Image: Instagram)

Inverell Terrace Motor Lodge

Inverell Terrace Motor Lodge – just a seven-minute walk from the high street – has 18 guest rooms, including interconnecting and accessible suites; each room has a flatscreen TV and mini bar, and breakfast can be delivered to your room.

A self-contained cottage has a dining area, kitchen and laundry, and can sleep up to eight guests in three bedrooms. There’s also a shared barbecue area for cooking your own meals.

Inverell caravan parks and camping

Copeton Northern Foreshores

Just 17 kilometres from Inverell, Copeton Northern Foreshores is a family and pet-friendly campground overlooking Copeton Dam (which is also known as Lake Copeton).

There are powered and unpowered sites, a camp kitchen, covered barbecue areas, fire pits, laundry facilities, an outdoor gym and free wi-fi.

Whether you’re spending the night or just visiting for the day you can enjoy the children’s playground, water splash park and floating pontoon.

Copeton Waters Holiday Park

On the other side of Lake Copeton, 40 kilometres from Inverell, Copeton Waters Holiday Park is part of the Reflections Holiday Parks chain. It’s perfect for families, featuring a water park, jumping pillow, BMX track, tennis court, boat ramp and more.

As well as powered and unpowered sites the park has a range of cabins, from basic economy options to deluxe three-bedroom cabins with air conditioning, full-sized fridges and ovens. Some standard cabins also include a garden fence and kennel if you’re travelling with your dog.

Copeton Waters Holiday Park, Inverell — Get out on the water thanks to Copeton Waters Holiday Park’s boat ramp.

Free camping

There’s free camping on the eastern side of Copeton Dam. Keep in mind there are no facilities in the area, so you’ll need to be entirely self-sufficient.

Inverell Caravan Park

Boasting water views of the Macintyre River, Inverell Caravan Park has powered and unpowered sites, private ensuite cabins, accessible amenities, a saltwater pool, laundry facilities and a covered barbecue area.

The pet-friendly park is an easy 15-minute walk from the heart of town; you can follow the bitumen track along the river and look out for waterbirds as you go.

Sapphire City Caravan Park

Sapphire City Caravan Park sits at the edge of town and is made up of three acres of grassed camping grounds, as well as cabins, villas, and powered and unpowered sites. The clean and comfortable cabins are self-contained and come with air conditioning and linens.

Inverell restaurants, pubs and cafes

Friendly Aussie cafes, a stylish craft beer bar and tempting dishes await in Inverell.

The Welder’s Dog

The craft beer that started in Armidale now has a new outpost in Inverell as part of the freshly renovated Oxford Hotel. The Welder’s Dog Inverell is the first in the group to offer in-house food, including burgers and buffalo wings.

As well as pouring their own range of beers, the team mixes espresso martinis, margaritas and other cocktails; enjoy them from a seat by the front window or under the soaring sky-lit ceiling in the back.

The venue gets bonus points for providing complimentary products in the women’s bathroom, including deodorant, hairspray, hair bands, chewing gum and sanitary products.

Welder's Dog, Inverell — Grab a beer and some pub grub in the cosy Welder’s Dog.

The Union Inverell

After starting life as the Union Bank in 1911, then being turned into a restaurant and pub in the ’70s, the Union building was completely renovated and relaunched as a cafe and bar in 2012.

Now open for lunch and dinner, The Union Inverell ’s menu includes salmon ceviche, Riverine scotch fillet steak, and slow-braised baby back ribs with homemade barbecue sauce. City visitors may also be surprised to find cocktails starting at $12, even outside happy hours.

A burger from The Union Inverell — Wash down your elevated pub grub with surprisingly affordable cocktails.

Freckles Cafe

Grab a table inside or sit out the front to watch life go by on Byron Street while enjoying breakfast or lunch – or perhaps just a smoothie or sweet treat – at Freckles Cafe .

The menu includes freshly made sandwiches, melts, burgers and nachos; at breakfast, half-serve options of some dishes are available for those who’d like to try the choc chip waffles while resisting a whole plate.

Freckles Cafe, Inverell — Indulge in a sweet crepe at Freckles Cafe.

Inverell’s Australia Cafe

Comfortable booths with tiled tables, painted wood saws, Aussie rugby memorabilia, and photos from years gone by – including the 2010 fire that destroyed the 109-year-old Arcade where the cafe now stands – are just some of the things you’ll find in Inverell’s Australia Cafe .

Save your smashed avo for another day: here the breakfasts include omelettes, wraps, rolls, and baked beans or spaghetti with toast.

Australia Cafe, Inverell — Let your tastebuds explore new flavours at Australia Cafe.

Things to do in Inverell

Embrace lake life at Copeton Dam, see collectable cars and bikes, stand in buildings from another time and see if you can find sapphires in the wild.

Sapphire City Festival

The Sapphire City Festival runs for 10 days every October and is the biggest event on Inverell’s annual calendar. It’s full of free or low-cost events, and highlights include the Pioneer Village Open Day, Sapphire City Market Day, the Inverell Art Prize exhibition and fossicking tours.

On Finale Day there’s a street parade along Otho and Byron Streets, carnival rides, entertainment and food stalls, as well as a fireworks spectacular off the town bridge.

Copeton Dam

Three times the size of Sydney Harbour, Copeton Dam is a popular spot for watersports, mountain bike riding, bushwalking, camping and fishing. It’s also one of only two inland waterways in NSW where you can fish for Murray Cod year-round.

After a $5.7 million upgrade, the Northern Foreshores has a newly fenced children’s play area, splash park, picnic areas and walking tracks.

It’s home to the longest boat ramp in Australia, too; the 400-metre ramp means the dam is now accessible when levels are between 11 and 60 per cent. Day visitors can use the Northern Foreshores facilities for $5 per vehicle, while camping is an extra charge.

A car driving along the Copeton Dam, Copeton. — Get active and enjoy the views at Copeton Dam. (Image: Destination NSW)

National Transport Museum

From some of the first cars to drive on Australian roads to futuristic solar-powered vehicles, the National Transport Museum is full of treasures and surprises.

Standouts in this big shed include a 1906 Dayton that’s believed to be the last in the world, a 1912 Renault, a 1926 Diana, and a range of Rolls Royces, Chevrolets, Holdens and Fords.

You can also see vintage and modern motorcycles, as well as an old monorail car from Sydney’s transport past.

Inverell National Transport Museum — View a range of classic and vintage cars, motorbikes and more at National Transport Museum.

Inverell Pioneer Village

Step into history at Inverell Pioneer Village , where heritage buildings have been relocated and restored to their former glory.

Around the village pond you can find the Grove Homestead, which dates back to 1840 and was originally found in the village of Tingha in early tin mining days, Paddy’s Pub, which was built in 1874, and a bush school, where students first took their seats in 1887.

Displays inside the buildings include vintage photography equipment, typesetting and printing machines, hundreds of colourful vintage glass bottles, and a working model of a sapphire mine.

The General Store (built in 1911) located inside Inverell Pioneer Village, Inverell — Step into history at Inverell Pioneer Village. (Image: Don Fuchs /Destination NSW)

Fossicking Inverell

Inverell was one of the world’s biggest suppliers of sapphires in the 1960s and ’70s – so much so that it became known as Sapphire City.

Today you can still find sapphires by getting your hands dirty in creek beds, or by skipping a few steps and buying some sapphire wash.

There are designated fossicking areas around town, and the Inverell Visitor Information Centre can give you tips on the best places to try to find these precious gems, as well as quartz and other crystals.

Fossicking for sapphires in Inverell — Fossick for you very own sapphire. (Image: Don Fuchs /Destination NSW)

Inverell Art Gallery

See exhibitions by local and visiting artists or join a weekly art class or workshop at Inverell Art Gallery .

The 94-metre-long Meandering Macintyre mosaic out the front, comprised of images of local flora and fauna, is believed to be the longest continuous mosaic footpath in Australia.

Alongside the gallery, the Face of Inverell mural by Claire Foxton is a portrait of much-loved Aboriginal elder Aunty Elizabeth, who was 94 when she passed away in 2020.

Inverell Art Gallery — Peruse works from local and visiting artists.

Victa Mower Museum

You’ll never look at Victa mowers the same way again after a visit to Malcolm Pomfrett’s place.

Malcolm has been collecting and rebuilding old Victa lawnmowers for more than 30 years, and now has more than 150 Victas on display at 31 Clive Street, Inverell.

Visitors are welcome to pop in; if Malcolm is home they can see the collection, along with a one-of-a-kind mounted reprint of an original archived drawing of a 1956 Victa mower base-plate.

In NSW’s New England High Country, Tenterfield flies quietly under the radar, offering travellers plenty to eat, drink, see and do without losing its country charm.

You’ll likely see a tractor driven down the main street in Tenterfield. And a restaurant as swanky as anything you’ve seen in Orange or Mudgee: two of regional NSW’s hippest foodie towns. But should you consider Tenterfield the new Orange, or the new Mudgee – and I’ve been putting it out there to residents – locals will rebuke, and tell you, “No… it’s the old Tenterfield”. And therein lies the duality of this town: is this an overlooked soon-to-be hotspot? Or a classic Aussie country town?

the Tenterfield Post Office — Heritage-listed Tenterfield Post Office. (Image: Bauer Media/Destination NSW)

It’s worth noting that from Sydney, Tenterfield isn’t a breezy 3.5-hour drive away – instead the New England High Country town near the Queensland border is an eight-hour drive or 2.5 hours from the nearest major airport, Ballina Byron Gateway (reached mostly via a winding, undulating two-lane road). As such, you won’t find the usual influx of Sydneysiders here like you would in the aforementioned regional NSW hubs. Instead, it’s Brisbane folk who make the 3.5-hour drive south for a weekend escape from Queensland’s humidity. Sitting 850 metres above sea level, Tenterfield often calls for a fire at night, even in summer, and in winter, it’s not unheard of for snow to fall.

the entrance of Tenterfield Saddler — Tenterfield Saddler was made famous by Peter Allen’s song. (Image: Destination NSW/Nathan Jacobs)

I arrive away from the weekend and it’s as quiet as any regional Australian town. Just a whole lot prettier. Its streets are lined with heritage-listed buildings. History oozes out of them: like Tenterfield Saddler (1868) on High Street, which Peter Allen immortalised in song, and the theatre on Rouse Street where Henry Parkes called for Federation in 1889. Its pubs, such as Royal Tenterfield, which dates back to 1849, might have had a spit and polish, but there’s enough hardware stores and trucks loaded with cattle rattling down its main street to prove this is still a hard-working farming town.

The archway of evergreens lining every roadway here channel the English countryside. And there’s a gentleness about Tenterfield that seems a bit un-Australian. When I take a walk to town – for I’m staying close by in a luxury suite at Old Council Chambers originally built in 1884 – the sun on my face lacks the sting of coastal towns such as Byron Bay and Coffs Harbour downhill from here.

Tenterfield’s thriving dining scene

the Stonefruit exterior, Tenterfield — Stonefruit celebrates growers from the Granite Belt and New England regions.

On the main street, I backtrack as I walk past Stonefruit , distracted by its sleek, inner-Sydney-bar-like facade. Its thirtysomething owners Karlee McGee and Alistair Blackwell left Sydney’s Darlinghurst in 2022, attracted to Tenterfield by its small-town energy. Impressed by the remodelling of this century-old building, I stay for lunch in the courtyard out back, enveloped by old brick walls covered in grapevines and party lights.

the Stonefruit moody interior, Tenterfield — Stonefruit spills open onto the street. (Image: Destination NSW/Nathan Jacobs)

Stonefruit champions growers from the nearby Granite Belt (Stanthorpe is 50 kilometres north) and New England regions – last year, they won Good Food Guide’s Drinks List of the Year category. “We’re looking forward to more and more like-minded people settling in the area,” Blackwell tells me. “Though we’re not the same inner-city people we were even just a couple of years ago.”

wines on display at Stonefruit, Tenterfield — Its shelves are stocked with great wines.

A short drive south, in Deepwater, another thirtysomething former city slicker, who once ran bars, built a brewery in a town of 450 locals made from tin he salvaged from an old shearing shed. It has become a magnet for lovers of craft beer in a region known for its wineries. “More young people are moving here,” Deepwater Brewing founder Isaac Zietek tells me. “I got sick of city traffic; it’s no way to live your life. This area seemed a good place to come.”

dining at The Commercial Boutique Hotel, Tenterfield — The Commercial Boutique Hotel, a historic country pub in Tenterfield. (Image: Destination NSW/Nathan Jacobs)

That evening, at The Commercial Boutique Hotel , a restored 1940s Art Deco hotel on Tenterfield’s main street, I enjoy a main course of orange and clove sous vide duck breast crafted by head chef, Jagdeep Singh Saini. Originally from Punjab, India, Jagdeep fuses French classical cooking techniques with local ingredients and an Asian influence. I wasn’t expecting the best country pub meal I’ve ever had here on a sleepy Tuesday night: but that’s what I get.

At Little Nook & Co, locals drink Allpress coffee with doors open to the street and the big brekkie wraps could feed a family, New Zealand-born owner Kendyl Weir assures me Tenterfield may be evolving into something bigger, but at its heart it’s still a country town. “Everyone still says hello to each other here,” she says. “There’s tourism all round, but it still feels like a town for locals.”

Tenterfield’s other highlights

the Bald Rock NationalPark, Tenterfield — Bald Rock National Park is defined by its granite landscapes and diverse eucalyptus forests. (Image: Destination NSW/Daniel)

Its food and wine attractions, mind you, weren’t even what got travellers here originally. In the distance, beyond the town’s pretty Victorian-era buildings, granite mountains loom on the horizon. The stark contrast – English-like surroundings meet rugged Australian bushland – must have made early settlers cautiously melancholic.

Adventure types put Tenterfield on the map. Six national parks surround the town. I climb the largest exposed granite monolith in the southern hemisphere in Bald Rock National Park and look out across the Northern Tablelands. The area is rich in Indigenous heritage, as Bald Rock was neutral ground for the Jukembal, Bundjalung and Kamilaroi peoples.

a person standing between boulders in Tenterfield — The boulder-strewn landscape around Tenterfield, in NSW’s New England region. (Image: Destination NSW/Daniel Tran)

I also hike to where one-time resident Banjo Paterson proposed to his sweetheart overlooking a 210-metre waterfall in Boonoo Boonoo National Park. The 174 kilometres of world-class mountain-bike trails will also make Tenterfield one of Australia’s major MTB destinations when it opens in 2026. It is set to attract an extra 35,000 visitors to town per year.

a train passing by the Tenterfield Railway Station — Tenterfield Railway Station now serves as a museum. (Image: Destination NSW/Craig Parry)

There’s more: Tenterfield Railway Station Museum offers insights into life here 140 years ago, and Tenterfield Saddler lifts a lid on 19th century pastoralists. The whole town’s a living museum, with farm gates and wineries just a few minutes’ drive from the CBD. But what I like best of all is that Tenterfield’s not trying to be something it’s not. Is it the new Orange? No, more the old Tenterfield… just a bit different.

sunrise views at Tenterfield Creek — Scenic morning views across Tenterfield Creek. (Image: Destination NSW/Daniel Tran)

A traveller’s checklist

Getting there

the Tenterfield welcome signage — The town is the gateway to Big Sky Country. (Image: Destination NSW/Daniel Tran)

Tenterfield is a 3.5-hour drive from Brisbane and the Gold Coast or eight-hour drive from Sydney. Or fly to Ballina Byron Gateway Airport and hire a car.

Staying there

Old Council Chambers offers two luxury accommodation options – a studio and one-bedroom apartment in a restored 1884 property.

Eating there

Ballina king prawns with chilli butter, whipped yoghurt and kaffir lime at Stonefruit, Tenterfield — The menu at Stonefruit is known for rustic dishes like Ballina king prawns served with chilli butter, whipped yoghurt and kaffir lime.

Stonefruit is open Sunday to Monday 10am to 3pm; and Thursday to Saturday 10am to late. Deepwater Brewing offers beer tastings and pizzas. The Commercial Boutique Hotel and the Royal Hotel serve dinner seven nights a week.

Your guide to Inverell accommodation, travel and activities