Inland Explorer

Departing on our luxury ‘Gold Class’ coach from Roma Street Transit Centre, Brisbane, we travel through the rich fertile area of the Lockyer Valley, breaking at Picnic Point in Toowoomba for a cuppa. Next we continue on through Dalby to the melon town of Chinchilla for lunch. We finish our day in Roma.

After a leisurely start to the day we re-board the coach and make our way to St George, breaking here for lunch. Our afternoon takes us to the world class Australian Opal Centre, to admire these precious gemstones and rare fossils.

With our local guide in tow we discover the many hidden gems of this fascinating town. We visit Fred Bodel’s hut, the oldest miner’s camp in the area and the Historic Three Mile Flat, the site of the early miners’ settlement. We travel back to town for morning tea and an opal cutting demonstration. Later we learn about the historic opal mining techniques at Lunatic Hill OpenCut. Next we see the Astronomers’ Monument , the hand built Amigo’s Castle and Bevan’s cactus gardens. After lunch we visit ‘Chambers of the Black Hand’ a national treasure in the making in a 100 year old mine shaft. You will see images carved and painted in the sandstone walls and pillars. After a day of sightseeing we take a therapeutic soak in the naturally heated thermal baths.

Leaving Lightning Ridge and its colourful characters behind us, our travels today take us through Walgett a regional hub for the wool, wheat and cotton industries. We break at Coonamble before making our way to Dubbo, visiting the Taronga Western Plains Zoo for lunch followed by a guided wildlife zoofari.

Leaving Dubbo we head to the prosperous cattle and sheep farming region of Nyngan on the Bogan River. We then traverse the Barrier Highway to the copper mining town of Cobar, arriving in time for lunch. We pay a visit to the Great Cobar Heritage Centre, built to commemorate those who lost their lives in the town’s mines.

On the highway for the first part of our day today, we break at Wilcannia for an early lunch before continuing on to Broken Hill. We arrive into Broken Hill early afternoon, giving you time to mix with the locals and enjoy some souvenir shopping before transferring to our accommodation.

Enjoy a gossip tour of Broken Hill, viewing heritage-listed architecture and discovering the famous art galleries, the Big Picture and the Line of Lode. Next we head to Silverton, almost a ghost town, and the setting for many famous movies. We head back to Broken Hill via the vast Mundi Mundi plains to visit the Pro Hart Gallery before visiting the Living Desert Flora & Fauna Sanctuary, taking a 2.2km walking trail. We then wait for sunset to witness the ‘Living Desert Sculptures’ nestled amongst the Barrier Ranges. This outlook takes in the magnificent colours of the desert at sunset, along with views of the distant horizon.

We depart Broken Hill and travel south along the Silver City Highway, making our way to the New South Wales/ Victorian border city of Wentworth, the junction of the two mightyrivers; the Darling and the Murray. Our afternoon takes in historic Old Wentworth Gaol before travelling across the Murray River and on to the Victorian town of Mildura.

We follow the Murray River upstream through the town of Robinvale and on to our morning tea break on the banks of the Murray River at Tooleybuc. Back on the road, we travel to Swan Hill, visiting the Pioneer Settlement for a guided tour and lunch. We then continue through Lake Boga and Kerang, arriving in Echuca, the paddle steamer capital of Australia.

Board the Pride of the Murray, a lovingly maintained paddleboat that will take us meandering between the Redgum lined banks of the mighty Murray. Then we make our way to Melbourne for our last night together.

A leisurely morning checking-out of our hotel at 10am. We are then transferred to Melbourne, Tullamarine Airport for our respective flights home.