Broken Hill to Newcastle road trip: Best stops, distance & drive time
The best stops on a Broken Hill to Newcastle road trip include Cobar, Nyngan, Gilgandra and Dunedoo. By car, the distance from Broken Hill to Newcastle is 1,133km, with a driving time of around 12h10m.
Planning a Broken Hill to Newcastle road trip itinerary
A Broken Hill to Newcastle road trip is an epic cross-New South Wales adventure, taking you from the outback to the surf.
To secure the best Broken Hill accommodation before arriving, sort it here.
Newcastle offers plenty of activities, including adventure boat cruises along the coastline, architecture and street art walking tours and whale watching cruises. For a big menu of Newcastle tours and experiences, explore here. To fix up one of Newcastle’s best accommodation options, book here.
This guide should help you plan your ideal Broken Hill to Newcastle road trip. Click through on the links for more detailed information about individual towns and attractions.
If you need to hire a car, find the best rental deals. And don’t forget to do all your pre-road trip shopping.
Broken Hill to Newcastle distance and driving time
By car along sealed roads, the distance from Broken Hill to Newcastle is 1,133km. Without stopping, that makes for a Broken Hill to Newcastle driving time of around 12 hours and 10 minutes.
Good road trip stops on the quickest Broken Hill to Newcastle route include Cobar, Nyngan, Gilgandra and Dunedoo.
Things to do in Broken Hill include the Big Picture at the Silver City Mint, the Living Desert sculptures and Silverton’s Mad Max 2 Museum.
Broken Hill accommodation picks
Australia specialist accommodation booking site Wotif offers stays in Broken Hill for from $105 a night. Check out the best deals page here.
To narrow it down a little, you should probably look at the following Broken Hill accommodation choices first.
- For families: Broken Hill Tourist Park.
- For good value on a budget: Lodge Outback Motel.
- For art deco glamour near the train station: Royal Exchange Hotel.
- For central location with a pool: Ibis Styles.
- For character: Astra Hotel.
Outback New South Wales: Wilcannia and Cobar
For Newcastle, keep going along the Barrier Highway, which heads through fairly bleak Wilcannia towards mining town Cobar.
Two possible diversions on the way are opal hub White Cliffs and the Menindee Lakes.
In White Cliffs, go on a tour of the Red Earth opal mine, sleep in the Underground Motel and discover Paroo-Darling National Park.
Menindee, meanwhile, is the base for lakes and Darling River cruises plus Kinchega National Park.
In Wilcannia, the Queens Head Hotel now hosts an art gallery.
Cobar is more worth a stop, though. Things to do in Cobar include the Great Cobar Museum, which is mainly about copper mining heritage.
You can see the current mining operations from the Fort Bourke Hill Lookout. But Cobar also has an eccentric side, as typified by the Cobar Sound Chapel art installation/ This weird public space plays decidedly odd music inside an old water tank.
Cobar accommodation recommendations
The best places to stay in Cobar are:
- For a decent-sized pool and kitchenettes: Crossroads Motel.
- For – usually – the cheapest prices: Copper City Motel.
- For family rooms and a restaurant: Cobar Town and Country Motor Inn.
Broken Hill to Newcastle road trip: Nyngan and Warren
On the way to Nyngan, the drive passes through the tiny villages of Canbelego and Hermidale. In Canbelego, you can see the remnants of the former Mount Boppy Gold Mine.
The top attractions in Nyngan are the Nyngan Museum, and the statue of the Big Bogan – one of Australia’s more entertaining Big Things. Nyngan accommodation options include the Alamo Motor Inn, which offers barbecue facilities to guests.
Keep going to Nevertire, where the quickest route involves turning off down the Oxley Highway.
The first town you’ll come to is Warren on the Macquarie River. The Warren War Memorial Olympic Swimming Pool is the main attraction here.
Broken Hill to Newcastle drive: Gilgandra to Dunedoo
From Warren it’s another 85km of rural nothingness to Gilgandra.
Top of the list of things to do in Gilgandra is paying a visit to Orana Cactus World. This delightfully strange labour of love sees more than 1,000 species of cacti gathered in one place.
Gilgandra accommodation options are basically all about the motels. The three star Cooee Motel is solid, and has some rooms with garden views, while the Castlereagh Motor Inn has a small pool.
At Gilgandra, take the Castlereagh Highway and head towards Mendooran, a dairy town on the Castlereagh River. Unless you’re going for a drink in the Royal Hotel, the main attraction in Mendooran is the series of murals painted on buildings around the town.
The Mendooran murals are the handiwork of Karen Duce, and they depict rural life. The scene with the bullocks on the side of the Royal Hotel is arguably the most impressive.
Continue along the Castlereach Highway to Dunedoo. There’s nothing to get massively excited about here, but there are a few places to eat, plus a swimming pool and golf course. The highlight for visitors is likely to be the silo art – massive murals have been painted on Dunedoo’s grain silos.
Click through to the next section: Dunedoo to Merriwa.