Broken Hill is seriously unlike any outback city or town. Here’s how best to find its eccentric essence in one wild long, long weekend.
The first time I drove into Broken Hill, years ago, after a languid, wondrous road trip from Sydney, a couple of surprises lightly smacked me across my sun-smooched cheeks.
First was the city’s improbable scale, given it’s only about 50 clicks from the South Australian border and almost as far west as you can go in NSW, enveloped by bewitching, spinifex-spiked outback.
The second dawned more gradually. ‘The Hill’ has an uncanny, vivacious and multifaceted personality – both the place and its people. It’s unlike any country town I’ve visited, including the small settlements I’d passed through on the drive from Sydney.
The striking red dirt in the outback landscape. (Credit: Destination NSW)
BHP’s birthplace makes a rugged first impression. Its mining past and present rise up from the landscape, providing a protective corrugated-metal protective shell around its neat historic city centre, a rich amalgam of Federation, Victorian and Art Deco architecture (funded by the silver, lead and zinc mines). Locals are even more diverse than their town’s architectural mix and less swayed by the east coast’s rule-makers and box-tickers. Out here, you’re free to be yourself: eccentric, artistic and even urbane.
For my fourth visit, I fly in from Sydney, rent a car and give myself a decent stretch of time to reacquaint myself with this character-filled place. Here’s what I’d do, with four days up my (rolled-up) sleeve in Broken Hill.
Day 1: Get your bearings
The iconic Bells Milk Bar. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Line of Lode Miner’s Memorial. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Start at the Visitor Information Centre, where a Heritage Walk Tour is a laid-back, informative way to orient yourself in the gridded town centre. Street names such as Mercury and Cobalt prove just how interwoven mining is with the 143-year-old settlement and its economy. Drive up the waste-rock ‘mullock heap’ for an expansive vista and an insight into the industry’s brutal legacy at Line of Lode Miner’s Memorial, featuring the names of 800 workers who have perished on the job.
Another famous BHP – the 140-year-old Broken Hill Pub – offers big-lunch staples, including a belly-challenging range of schnitties, as well as surprisingly multicultural options (I recommend the karaage wings). I treat Bells Milk Bar (circa 1892) in South Broken Hill as my de facto dessert bar; slowly slurping a full-fat, house syrup-flavoured shake (the Jaffa is excellent) in the 1950s-style interior, marvelling at vintage cartoon murals. Bells’ ‘roof alien’ is a regional icon.
The Living Desert and Sculptures highlights the wide, open skies around Broken Hill. (Credit: Destination NSW)
As the sun sinks, drive 20 minutes north to Living Desert State Park. Atop Sundown Hill, meander around the 12 sandstone sculptures, carved by Indigenous and international artists, which surreally glow as the fading gloam sets the red desert landscape of the Barrier Ranges alight. Watch for kangaroos on the return drive.
Need tips, more detail or itinerary ideas tailored to you? Ask AT.
AI Prompt
Day 2: A far-out day trip and a night staring into the starry sky
A VW Beetle outside the Silverton Hotel pays homage to the V8 Interceptor from the original Mad Max film. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Silverton is only a 25-kilometre drive north-west of Broken Hill, along the ‘Road with 39 Dips’, but this 50-person dirt-street town feels like it’s from another time. Explore its saltbush surroundings on a swaying, belching dromedary with Silverton Outback Camels. A visit to the property of Petah Devine (‘the camel lady’) is a highlight, with a ragtag mob of rescue animals – from emotional emus to gruff water buffaloes – parading around rusty scrap metal and vintage contraptions.
John Dynon Art Gallery celebrates painter John Dynon (aka the ‘Emu Man’ ) in the outback town of Silverton, a major source of inspiration for his art. (Credit: Destination NSW)
The colourful John Dynon Art Gallery
in Silverton. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Pretty much everyone stops for a pub lunch and chilled beverage at the region’s second-most famous pub, Silverton Hotel (number one will be revealed on day four). The town’s marvellously motley activity options include the Mad Max 2 Museum (a corrugated-metal shed full of cars, costumes and kitsch from the film, which was shot nearby), the quirky John Dynon Art Gallery and a tour of historic Daydream Mine (28 kilometres north-west of Broken Hill). And you must admire the shimmering outback infinity from Mundi Mundi Lookout, where scenes from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert were filmed.
Access to Mundi Mundi Lookout is via a sealed road. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Speaking of infinity, head to Outback Astronomy (10 minutes north-east of Broken Hill) after dark, for one of its stargazing ‘sky shows’. Tuck into an Asteroid Scatter Platter, binoculars in one hand, wine in the other, as sky-guide Linda Nadge makes sense of out-of-this-world things with a laser pointer and telescope.
Day 3: Cafe hopping, gallery crawling and premium bush tucker
Broken Hill City Art
Gallery. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Lunch at The Silly Goat. (Credit: Destination NSW)
See The Big Picture at the Silver City Mint & Art Centre. (Credit: Destination NSW)
The outback is officially no longer a coffee wasteland. My favourite cafe option is The Deli – for its joyful, bright vibe, Little Marionette coffees and elevated old-school Aussie cakes. The whimsical gift shop is worth a browse, too. On the main drag, Argent Street, The Silly Goat draws in upwardly mobile locals for very good Seven Miles coffee and well-executed brunch faves in a post-industrial space.
Paint-splattered doorway at Pro Hart Gallery. (Credit: Destination NSW)
After fuelling up on caffeine, it’s then time to set off on a choose-your-own-art-venture around The Hill’s charismatic galleries. Broken Hill City Art Gallery, based in an old general store, is my go-to, with a strong representation of Indigenous and bush artists. All tastes can be sated here, from bold outback-inspired impressionism and surrealism at Pro Hart Gallery to The Big Picture, an in-the-round, room-sized landscape at Silver City Mint & Art Centre (billed as the world’s largest acrylic painting on canvas by a single artist).
If I could eat out just once in Broken Hill, I would do it twice at The Old Salt Bush. Tenacious restaurateur and chef Lee Cecchin’s bush-food fusion makes this one of NSW’s finest regional restaurants. The setting, inside a refined 1888 heritage-listed building, is calm and genteel. Dishes such as saltbush-dusted lamb rump and green-ant panna cotta tart consistently keep tastebuds challenged and delighted (be sure to book ahead).
Day 4: A rock-art quest, then drag yourself to the ‘Priscilla pub’
Weekly travel news, experiences insider tips, offers, and more.
Take an Indigenous-led tour of Mutawintji National Park. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Exploring Mutawintji
National Park. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Admire ancient Aboriginal rock art. (Credit: Destination NSW)
Mutawintji is one of Australia’s most underrated national parks and is well worth the 130-kilometre journey from Broken Hill. The drive, along a lonely road heading towards opal-mining outpost White Cliffs, is a mind-clearing meditation. Book ahead for an Indigenous guide-led Mutawintji cultural tour, which explores rock art highlights of the 69,000-hectare ex-sheep station. The hand stencils and tens-of-thousands of years old petroglyphs are stupendous.
Guide Keanu Bates sharing art and culture. (Credit: Destination NSW)
There are plenty of pockets of personality still to be explored this afternoon. My pick? Check out the Mosque Museum, once a place of worship for the outback-pioneering Afghan cameleers (open by appointment). Snap a selfie outside the vintage radio-shaped 2BH building. Head to the Royal Flying Doctor Service Outback Heritage Experience at the airport to revel in the history and heroics of the airborne medicos.
Beeline for The Palace Hotel. (Credit: Destination NSW)
For a final-night soiree, I suggest a multi-venue beverage safari in the town. Sample Old Man Saltbush gin at Broken Hill Distillery. Sip a late-afternoon cocktail or wine on the archetypal verandah at Red Lush (part of The Astra hotel). Beeline for The Palace Hotel – aka the ‘Priscilla pub’, the region’s most famous watering hole, where iconic scenes from the movie were filmed – to gape at its old-school murals, including a ceiling-based replica of Botticelli’s TheBirth of Venus. Then do what the locals do, whether it’s watching a drag show or belting out karaoke.
NB: Plan a sleep-in tomorrow.
Travel details
How to get to Broken Hill
Fly from Adelaide to Broken Hill with REX or direct from Sydney with QANTASLINK. By car, Broken Hill is about 1150 kilometres west of Sydney (13 hours) and about 517 kilometres north-east of Adelaide (5.5-6 hours).
Who says a healthy holiday always has to mean meditative silence?
Sitting on the balcony wrapped in a bathrobe, you warm your cold hands around a green tea as steam rises from the mug. The lorikeets haven’t come out yet, but the sunrise hot-air balloons have. Below, scrubby bushland gives way to rows of vines, where, in a few hours, the Hunter Valley’s cellar doors will begin pouring Semillon.
You might have booked the new Avani Cypress Lakes for a reset – but that doesn’t mean retreating from everything around you. Here’s how the Hunter Valley’s new resort is doing wellness without shutting the world out.
Location
Take in 360-degree views from Meditation Hill.
The brand-new Avani Cypress Lakes Resort is spread across 340 acres in Australia’s oldest wine-growing region. Rebranding in October 2026, it brings the former Oaks Cypress Lakes Resort and neighbouring Elysia Wellness Retreat together under the Avani name. It will also become Avani’s largest property in Australasia.
A long lunch among the vines is a siren song, but it might be even more of a temptation to spend the whole holiday at the resort. If you’re eager for the whole picture as soon as you get there, start your stay with a tramp up Meditation Hill for 360-degree views across the land, before discovering the rest of the resort.
Style and character
Make use of a private balcony in each villa.
Once you enter, be whisked (ever so gently) away to one of the resort’s 204 rooms and suites. Bedrooms come dressed in plush white linen, textured cushions and sleek upholstered headboards, with a palette that takes its cues from the outside, bringing in eucalyptus green and rich ochre that offset the creams, beiges and warm taupes.
For those group getaways, choose from one-, two- or three-bedroom villas, each with a private balcony, separate living areas and kitchen facilities. The one- and two-bedroom villas come with kitchenettes, while the three-bedroomers have full kitchens for those planning to make themselves properly at home with Hunter Valley cheeses and local wine bottles, and the Premier Villa offers a serious upgrade.
If a wellness retreat is already whispering your name between the gentle chimes of Tibetan bells, the Wellness Suites come with private balconies and put AvaniWell’s saunas, pools and day spa experiences right on the doorstep for the 16-plus crowd.
It’s all part of the resort’s balance between switching off and being social when the mood strikes.
AvaniWell
AvaniWell is set to become Australia’s largest integrated resort wellness precinct. And with 26 treatment rooms and more than 50 day-spa treatments and therapies, there’s plenty to tempt you away from the golf green and into that fluffy spa robe.
If the existing Elysia treatments are anything to go by, heated volcanic stones, gua sha face massages, Hawaiian Kahuna massages, Himalayan salt scrubs, remedial massages and even Watsu therapy are all on the menu. The Watsu takes place in a purpose-built magnesium pool heated to body temperature, where floats support you as a practitioner guides you through delicious stretches.
But relaxation doesn’t run to a schedule. You can dip in for a single treatment or make a few days of it, with a year-round calendar of activities to pick and choose from. You can also make some moves on one of the eight Pilates reformers, relax in an infrared sauna or cool off in an outdoor cold-plunge pool or unwind in the magnesium pool.
Beyond that, three pickleball courts and the golf course should tempt you out of your slippers.
Dining
Enjoy a nourishing meal at Fusion.
Avani’s story began in Sri Lanka, so it’s perfect that it’s bringing a taste of the island to Australia’s fusion-loving food scene. Enter Chakraya, the resort’s Sri Lankan-inspired restaurant. From its warm timber tones to its flavours, this high-end dining spot takes its inspiration from the island’s traditions.
After a night at Chakraya, move from warm and intimate to light and airy at Fusion restaurant. The interiors are as fresh as the food, with nourishing dishes that complement the AvaniWell vibe and are just the thing in between your sauna session and Pilates class.
Later, it’s time to get the residents of the three-bedroomer together at the Bistro & Bar (open from breakfast to dinner). Here, it’s all about the casual classics, eaten in blissed-out calm.
Other facilities
Find a golf cours, kids program and more on the property.
When there’s business to attend to, the resort has 24 meeting and event spaces for everything from conferences to weddings. But the fairway always beckons. Designed by Steve Smyers, the 18-hole championship golf course has dramatic elevation changes and fairway contours, 60 bunkers, generous greens and epic views across the vineyards to the Brokenback range. Mind it doesn’t sting your swing.
For the little ones, the AvaniKids program will keep them busy with creative activities and outdoor adventures. But if you’d rather wait it out in style while everyone else is off golfing or gallivanting, take your pick: a luxuriously long swim in one of three outdoor pools, a cabana by the upgraded pool bar or settling in for a film at the outdoor cinema right as those evening crickets start up.
