Tibooburra is an isolated settlement in the far north-west of New South Wales, it is most frequently visited by tourists on their way to the national parks in the area.
Where is it?: Tibooburra is 335 km north of Broken Hill, 1504 km north-west of Sydney, 900 km from Adelaide.
With a population of around 150, Tibooburra functions as a service centre to the district, with two hotels, motel rooms, a caravan park, cabins, a roadhouse, a local store and a National Parks and Wildlife Service office, relating to Sturt National Park. Tibooburra is is regularly cited as the hottest town in the state. It is also the most isolated town being surrounded by harsh, rugged, flat open desert terrain, although its transformation after rain can be spectacular if brief.
The town, originally known as The Granite or Granite Rush, really came into existence with the discovery of gold at Mt Browne and then Tibooburra itself in 1881. That year nearly 1000 miners arrived in the town and the government, eager to provide services, surveyed the townsite and built a post office. Yields were disappointing however, lack of water was a chronic problem and typhoid and dysentery took their toll. The Family Hotel (1883), with its famous murals and paintings, and the Tibooburra Hotel (1890), built in goldrush days, are both still standing in Briscoe Street.
The Tibooburra Festival is held mid-year. The town also has golfing facilities and fossicking can be pursued in the area. One of the town's most spectacular offerings however is a simple view of sunset from the hill behind town.
The name Tibooburra is thought to mean 'heaps of rocks' in the language of the local Aborigines. This is presumably a reference to the granite outcrops near the town which are regarded as sacred sites of special mythological and spiritual significance. Three upright rocks, known as the 'Three Brothers' (only one remains), are believed to be an incarnation of three ancestors of the Wangkumara tribe who were turned to stone for marrying women from another tribe.
For 25,000 years the Wongkumara, Wadigali and Malyangapa groups have roamed through this area. Aboriginal sites including middens, quarries, camp sites, ceremonial sites, tool production sites and scarred trees are scattered throughout the area. In the 1930s literally all of the local Aboriginal population were moved to Brewarrina.
The Keeping Place
Located in Briscoe Street, the Keeping Place features a display of fauna, local photographs, and indigenous artefacts of wood and stone from the Wadigali, Wongkumara and Malyangapa tribes. At the end of the main street is the Tibooburra Pioneer Park which was established on 17 July 1999. The main attraction in the park is a full-size 27-foot long whaleboat (a sculpture by Anthony Hamilton) perched on the top of some poles. This is a replica of the whaleboat Charles Sturt hauled across inland Australia on a wagon with the intention of using it to row around the continent's 'inland sea' (he never found it). It was abandoned at Depot Glen near the current site.Tibooburra Outback School of the Air
This is a unique school of the air in the sense that the kids on the outlying properties actually interact with a real class of children in the Tibooburra Outback School of the Air. It is the only dual mode school in Australia. It can be toured at a cost of $2 per person and $4 per family. The best time to inspect is in the morning when the classes are in the room where radio contact is made with the outlying students. The air lesson times are Monday-Wednesday 9.00am - 12.30pm, Thursday 9.00am - 2.00pm, Friday has school assembly on the air from 9.00am - 10.00 am. On Tuesdays some of the students from outlying areas come in because it is the Royal Flying Doctor day. They operate on VHF radio. Over the road is the Bush Children's Hostel where children can stay while they attend the school for special functions.Golden Gully
Golden Gully, adjacent Dead Horse Gully camping ground, is a reconstruction of mining sites and methods with explanatory plaques. The turnoff is 1 km north of Tibooburra. 25 km east of town along the Wanaaring Rd, at the south-eastern section of the park, is Mt Wood homestead and an outdoor display of items from the old Mt Wood station, including a whim ( a device for drawing water from deep wells in the days before bores and windmills), a wool scourer and other old machinery. The old courthouse in Tibooburra itself is being converted into a museum to house indoor artifacts from the homestead (1884).
Sturt National Park
330 km north of town along the Silver City Highway is Sturt National Park which covers 344 000 hectares of classic outback terrain. Formerly five pastoral properties, it is estimated that between 1880 and 1910 over 50 per cent of all the wildlife in the area was driven from the land by graziers who overstocked to a point where most of the edible saltbush and copper-burr was destroyed. Nonetheless, since the park's dedication in 1972 the vegetation is returning to what remains the best stretch of real outback desert to be seen in New South Wales. The reserve contains relics of both Aboriginal habitation (mostly middens and stone remnants) and European pastoral history.
Sturt National Park is bounded by a portion of the world's longest fence, the Great Dingo Fence, which spans 5614 km from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Indian Ocean. Originally constructed by the Queensland government to halt a rabbit invasion encroaching from the south it is still maintained in order to keep wild dogs from sheep grazing areas.
