![]() About the area: the Southern Highlands mark the northern extremities of the Southern Agricultural region of New South Wales. One of the many special things about the Southern Highlands is that you don't have to travel far to discover the many picturesque towns and villages, each with its own history and identity. The Southern Highlands is a gourmet lover's delight - there is wine Tasting, Cellar Doors Sales, Berry Picking, Home Made Preserves, Sauces, Vinegars, Spices and Salad Dressings, Robertson Potatoes, Fresh Produce, Road Side Farm Produce Stalls, the list goes on.
The Hume Highway winds its way south from the Southern Highlands through rich, rolling countryside. Towns like Goulburn, Yass and Gundagai dot the countryside and are steeped in early colonial history. To their south of Goulburn and Yass is the Australian Capital Territory and Canberra, the nation's capital. Beyond the ACT is a treasure trove of former goldmining towns and mining camps in what is known as the Southern Goldfields of NSW. The almost tree-less Monaro Plains to Canberra's south herald the Snowy Mountains, Australia's highest mountains. they are home to the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, the biggest civil engineering project ever undertaken in Australia, and the New South Wales ski resorts.
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| Fitzroy Falls |
Mittagong |
Perisher Valley ski resort |
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National Parks
Natural Attractions
Caves
Waterfalls
- Bundanoon: Fitzroy Falls; Fairy Bower Falls
- Cooma: Tuross Falls
- Mittagong: Sixty Foot Falls
- Moss Vale: Fitzroy Falls
- Robertson: Belmore Falls (100 metres); Fitzroy Falls; Carrington Falls (50 metres)
- Tumbarumba: Paddy's River Falls (60 metres)
Historic Places
- Araluen: mining ruins - mullock heaps etc.
- Berrima: historic buildings; Berrima Gaol (1834-39. It was used as an internment camp in World War I for 'enemy aliens' and POW and has operated as a rehabilitation centre since 1949); Berrima Courthouse Museum (1835-38); Lambie's Well
- Bowral: historic buildings
- Braidwood: historic buildings
- Gundagai: historic buildings
- Moss Vale: Throsby Park Historic Site (1834)
- Towrang: site of a major stockade for a chain-gang of convicts and others involved in the construction of the Great South Rd from 1836 to 1842
Misc. Places of Interest
- Adaminaby: Big Trout; Lake Eucumbene (the largest of the man-made lakes in the Snowy Mountains, completed May 1958); The Old Adaminaby Race Track was used in the film Phar Lap
- Albury: Charles Sturt University
- Batlow: Springfield Orchard; Batlow Fruit Co-operative Limited; Cascade Fuchsia Nursery
- Berridale: Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme; Snowy River Winery; Eucumbene Trout Farm
- Berrima: The Australian Alpaca Centre; Berrima Lavender Farm; Amber Park Emu and Ostrich Farm
- Bombala: Town Lookout; Bendoc Mines; peat mines; Craigie gold mines
- Bowral: Corbett Gardens tulip displays; Bradman Museum, honouring Bowral's most famous son is cricketing legend, Sir Donald Bradman; Courthouse (1896)
- Bundanoon: Tooths Lookout; Glow-Worm Glen; Buddhist monastery; disused Erith Coal Mine (operative between the early 1860s and 1872, and then 1881-1889)
- Bungendore: Capital Wind Farm; historic buildings, including Railway Station (1884), used in the filming of The Year My Voice Broke and the Mick Jagger version of Ned Kelly
- Cooma: Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme; Mosaic Time Walk; Southern Cloud Memorial Park (commemorates the disappearance of the Southern Cloud aircraft which crashed in the Snowy Mountain in 1931. It was on a flight from Sydney to Melbourne and was Australia's first major air disaster. The wreckage wasn't found until 1958); The Man from Snowy River statue
- Goulburn: NSW Police Academy; Goulburn Regional Art Gallery; Rocky Hill War Memorial; Goulburn Gaol; Pejar Dam; Marsden Weir
- Gundagai: The Dog on the Tuckerbox and Snake Gully Tourist Centre; Rusconi's miniature marble carving of a Baroque Italian Palace; Niagara Cafe (1942); cairn on the floodplain where the National School stood before it, along with the headmaster and pupils, was washed away by the 1852 flood
- Holbrook: the hull of HMAS Otway in Germanton Park
- Jindabyne: Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme; Lake Jindabyne; Lake Eucumbene; Bicentennial Statue of Count Paul Strzelecki; Murray 1 and Murray 2 Power Stations; The Alpine Way; Gaden Trout Hatchery.
- Kangaroo Valley: Pioneer Settlement Reserve; Tallowa Dam; Hampden Suspension Bridge (1898); Pioneer Farm Museum
- Kiandra: New Chum Hill; Mt. Selwyn Snowfields; Three Mile Dam; Kiandra's Heritage Trail
- Mittagong: Boxvale Mine Walking Track (follows an historic tramline, constructed 1884-1888, through an 84 m tunnel to the old Boxvale anthracite mine near the junction of the Nattai River and Drapers Creek, which ceased operations in 1896); Amber Park Emu and Ostrich Farm.
- Moss Vale: The Cockatoo Run tourist steam railway
- Mt Kosciusko: Charlotte Pass; Lake Cootapatamba; Buddong Falls
- Perisher Valley: Perisher Valley and Blue Cow ski runs; Mt. Blue Cow Skitube
- Queanbeyan: Bicentennial Centre; Googong Dam, 10 km south; Queanbeyan Museum
- Robertson: The Big Potato; The Old Cheese Factory; former Independent Municipality of Laird (Robertson Pie Shop); Old Time Music Machines Museum
- Tarcutta: Australian Truck Drivers Memorial
- Thredbo: ski lift to the summit of Kosciuszko National Park
- Tumbarumba: McPhersons Plain Alpine Resort; Williams' mini Hydro-Electric Scheme; Tumbarumba Wool & Craft Centre; Pioneer Womens Museum
- Tumut: Snowy Mountains Trout Farm; Blowering Dam; Talbingo Power Stations; Tumut Broom Factory; Tumut Valley African Violets Farm; Boonderoo Wines; Bonnie B's Shaker Shed (eccentric collection of over 3,000 salt and pepper shakers); Brungle Aboriginal Reserve; Yallakool Orchard; Tumorrama Fire Tower Lookout; Tumut Museum; Pioneer Cemetery
- Yass: Yass Town Railway Museum (the old station has the shortest platform in Australia); Burrinjuck Dam 57 km south west); Yass and District Museum; Cobb & Co coaching station
Drives
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