BOURKE
'Back O' Bourke'
The Gateway to the Real Outback
The Back of Bourke is more than a geographic location, it's part of the Australian language, part of its folklore. That may be what provoked author Henry Lawson to write after his visit in 1892, “If you know Bourke, you know Australia .”
You might be a photographer, a naturalist, a historian, a reader of bush literature, a birdwatcher or just a plain Aussie wanting to discover his roots. Well, Come back of Bourke! You may be a visitor from overseas looking for a genuine experience of the outback. Well, come back of Bourke!
The 4.3 million hectares of Bourke Shire is a living university of surprising variety. It's home to a million red and grey kangaroos for a start! An hours drive can take you back 50,000 years in to the dream time territory of the Ngemba tribe in the canyon at Mt Gundabooka. The rock paintings are a classic example of the Aboriginal art of the Western Plains. Mt Gundabooka has recently been gazetted as a National Park. An hour spent with eagles in the silence atop Mt Oxley looking across a 100km expanse, rekindles the experience of explorers Sturt and Hume in 1829 where they felt that ‘this would never be the haunt of civilised man'.
Bird watchers delight in searching the billabongs and water storage's along the Darling or northward across salt bush plains and mulga scrub towards the lakes of Currawinya National Park near the village of Hungerford . It is recognised among the most important inland waterbird habitats in Australia . These are the haunts of egrets, herons, black swans, ibis, brolgas, black cockatoos, Major Mitchell cockatoos and over a hundred other species in surrounding areas such as the recently gazetted Culgoa National Park north east of Bourke.
Station stays offering modern units or simple shearers quarters will plunge you into outback life – mustering, fishing, yabbying, hunting, camel and horse riding or even riding in a chopper. Then again you may just prefer to camp under the dome of stars beside a fire of gidgee coals.
Bourke has a good range of facilities including five comfortable air-conditioned motels, 2 caravan parks and 3 hotels of which 1 offers accommodation. There are 2 clubs with restaurants and 1 hotel with a very high standard restaurant that cater for the hungry and thirsty traveller.
Paddleboat Cruises and Mateship Country Tours to give you the taste of what the back country is all about is a must for the traveller who comes to this resilient and forging town. The visionaries of the outback are still here producing wool, growing fruit, cotton, jojoba, melons and much more.
Come and experience the real outback where legends are just a part of this unique country town.
Bourke Visitor Information Centre
Old Railway Building
Anson Street
BOURKE NSW 2840Ph: (02) 6872 1222
Fax: (02) 6872 2305Email: tourinfo@ozemail.com.au
Website: www.visitbourke.comDriving Tips
• It is a good rule of thumb to travel 20k's slower on dirt road than on Bitumen roads.
• Slow down in thick dust and use your headlights.
• Most of our animals are nocturnal, they're busiest at night, so it is better if possible to travel by day.
