Machattie Park and the courthouse in downtown Bathurst. Picture: Brian Johnston Source: Supplied
Mt Frome vineyards near Mudgee. Picture: Brian Johnston Source: Supplied
THE NSW Central West provides quintessential Australian rural scenery, rolling vineyards and delightful country towns that combine colonial style with contemporary energy.
The region is also full of agreeable surprises, from great dining to unusual attractions
Best for dining: Bathurst
Elegant Bathurst, poised between the Blue Mountains and the Central West, is gaining a reputation as a regional dining centre that showcases local produce.
"On Keppel St alone you can indulge all day," Bathurst hotelier Christine Le Fevre says. "Al Dente has great coffee and food to go, Hub Espresso Bar offers fresh, regional dishes with Italian and Middle-Eastern influences, and the lemon tarts and macaroons at Le Gall's Patisserie are out of this world."
Also showing eclectic influences is Church Bar, where gourmet wood-fired pizzas are topped with goat's curd and walnuts, or Chinese five-spice duck.
And Cobblestone Lane resembles a chic Parisian bistro, with the likes of smoked rainbow trout chowder and pot-roasted shoulder of Cowra lamb on the menu, matched with Orange wines.
Even grocery stores such as Country Fruit are a treat. "Owner Craig Sharah won greengrocer of the year for three years," Le Fevre says.
Pick up Orange apples, Rosnay figs, Trunkey bacon, local relishes and jams and treats from the deli counter for a great taste of Bathurst.
More: visitbathurst.com.au
Where to drink: Head to the cellar door at Stone Pine Distillery and try berry liqueurs, apple and pear schnapps, and gin flavoured with wild lime.
Best for the family: Orange
The region's emphasis on country scenery, colonial history and cellar doors might seem a challenge if you have kids in tow.
Base yourself in Orange, though, and plenty of activities divert the young ones, with a cinema, tenpin bowling alley, skate park, BMX track in Anzac Park, and an aquatic centre.
Gosling Creek Reserve and Lake Canobolas are great for cycling. The tourist office has a brochure devoted to cycling and walking in the area.
Swimming, sailing, kayaking and fishing make Lake Canobolas, just beyond town, a popular local family excursion.
Don't miss Adventure Playground adjacent to the delightful Botanic Gardens. Swings, slides, tunnels, sway bridges and timber climbing frames suit everyone from toddlers to teenagers.
If you have a 4WD, take a tour along the bush tracks that surround Orange, where you can explore old gold mine settlements around Ophir.
The kids will enjoy still-working Gunadoo Mine, where the eccentric owner takes you into dilapidated workings on the hunt for gold.
If you want to really wow the kids, enjoy an early-morning hot-air balloon ride or a helicopter joy ride across the Orange landscape, especially beautiful in autumn.
More: www.orange.nsw.gov.au
Where to eat: Union Bank has a good wine selection and excellent tapas for adults, while kids will enjoy the fruit sodas, fish and chips and burgers.
Best for wine: Mudgee
Mudgee sits surrounded by a rural countryside of slow-munching cattle, hopping kangaroos and hillsides contoured with vineyards.
Vines have been grown here since the 1840s and Australia's first chardonnay grapes were planted in Mudgee in 1971, yet it has long been overlooked as a wine region. That's all changing, with mainstream grape varieties giving way to interesting, alternative varieties such as sangiovese, barbera and petit verdot.
At Vinifera Wines, Spanish grapes include tempranillo, garnacha, graciano and gran tinto.
"I noticed the similarity of Mudgee's climate to that of Spain's Rioja region," owner Tony McKendry says. "I thought, why do the same old thing when something new could be better?"
Further into the countryside at Lowe Wines, zinfandel is the alternative of choice, along with cool-climate whites normally associated with New Zealand.
Mudgee's cellar doors offer visitors more than just sipping and spitting. Gooree Park Wines hosts wagyu beef barbecues and visits to its horse stud.
Others offer cooking or art classes, sculpture exhibitions, cheese-making demonstrations, and there's even a motorcycle museum.
"With good dining, increasingly luxury accommodation and plenty to do, Mudgee really is a great getaway," McKendry says.
More: visitmudgeeregion.com.au
Where to eat: Local winemakers hang out at Roth's Wine Bar.
There's a great wine list, live music in the courtyard, and indulgent gourmet pizzas and tapas.
Best for history: Gulgong
One of the best-preserved colonial towns in the country boasts some 150 buildings from its boom time during the 1870s gold rush.
Many of its civic buildings - including a courthouse, post office and town hall now converted to a contemporary art gallery - stand along Herbert St.
Around the corner, the Prince of Wales is the oldest still-functioning opera house in Australia, while the Henry Lawson Centre celebrates one of our favourite poets, who lived in Gulgong during the 1870s.
"Many colonial towns still have grand public buildings, but Gulgong is remarkable for preserving ordinary worker's cottages, pubs and rows of shops too," Brian Cooke says.
The local guide, who can be booked through the tourist office, will take you around the town's sights and the terrific Pioneer Museum.
The museum rambles over several blocks and highlights colonial life in re-creations of a schoolroom, bakery, cottages and wayside inn.
More: gulgong.net
Where to stay: The re-created Telegraph Station houses two comfortable, well-appointed, self-catering accommodations: a two-bedroom apartment and a studio.
Best for stargazing: Parkes
The Parkes telescope is 52 years old, but the movie The Dish in 2000 made the public aware of this world-leading scientific facility, and has brought visitors to its doors ever since.
Just coming to admire the dish, balanced elegantly atop a three-storey tower, is worth the journey.
At the visitor centre, take a look at NASA exhibits and movie props, before taking off in the theatrette's Elysium Tourist Express to a 3D Mars. Another presentation, Invisible Universe, focuses on the achievements of Parkes scientists.
The visitor centre explains why this is such an important research station. "The location, large collecting area of the dish and its technology give Parkes the best telescope anywhere for pulsar astronomy," CSIRO's Dr Simon Johnston says. "Australia leads the world in the field."
Most of the world's known pulsars - rapidly spinning remains of old, collapsed stars - were first detected here, and quasars and interstellar magnetic fields were also discovered at Parkes.
"They push back our understanding of the origins and composition of the universe," Johnston says. "A visit to the dish isn't just a trip to rural NSW, but to the far reaches of space."
More: csiro.au/parkes
More Parkes: A star of another sort is celebrated in January, when Parkes hosts a fun-filled get-together of Elvis Presley tribute artists and impersonators.
Make it happen: Virgin Australia, ph 13 67 89.
More: centralnswtourism.com.au
3 WAYS TO DO THE CENTRAL WEST
1. Budget
Sleep: Cowra Van Park, by the Lachlan River, has laundry facilities and electric barbecues. Powered sites $31, ensuite cabins $80.
Eat and drink: Taste Canowindra is a one-stop cellar door for local wineries. The restaurant serves good, hearty nosh from $16 a main, with live music on weekends.
Shop: Head to Rosnay Wines on the Belubula River near Canowindra, where vineyards combine with an organic Mediterranean fruit orchard. Wine from $15 a bottle, olives $10 a jar.
Do: At $25 for the family, Canowindra's Age of Fishes Museum provides a unique insight into ancient fish fossils. Kids can poke, prod and take fossils rubbings.
2. Mid-range
Sleep: Borrodell, an estate of vineyards and orchards just out of Orange, has self-contained cottages from $180 a night.
Eat and drink: Racine features award-winning cuisine using local produce matched with La Colline wines from the surrounding vineyards. Two courses cost $65.
Shop: Caboodle of Orange has a good range of Aussie-made souvenirs knitting yarns and hand-knitted children's sweaters and woollens and more.
Do: Simmo's Offroad Tours does scenic 4WD passenger tours and 4WD tag-along tours across the Central West. Its mining tour includes gold panning and visits to historic mining sites.
3. Luxury
Sleep: Bishop's Court in Bathurst is an endearing private mansion with six bedrooms in various styles. Doubles from $250 a night including breakfast.
Eat and drink: A three-course, mod Oz meal at Cobblestone Lane will set you back $80, a bottle of 2004 Jarretts Finger & Thumb Shiraz from Orange another $80.
Shop: Wallace Bishop in the Bathurst City Shopping Centre tempts with diamond bangles, Japanese jewellery and a premium range of watches.
Do: For the thrill of driving the Bathurst race circuit, get into a race suit and helmet and climb into a V8 race car. From $999.
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