Destination: New South Wales, Australia

Small Group tours Outback New South Wales

Odyssey is a tour company that offers easy, convenient and relaxed escorted small group tours for seniors to NSW outback. Our New South Wales holiday packages for older travellers for the smaller group includes important authentic Aboriginal sites, historic colonial towns, World Heritage National Parks, large multi-cultural cities and spectacular scenery. A destination waiting to be explored on one of Odyssey’s NSW tour packages with a well-organized outback NSW itinerary designed for the senior traveller, led by like minded people who enjoy a guided a small group experience.

Located on Australia’s east coast, New South Wales is Australia ‘s most populous state. Covering an area roughly 4 times the size of the U.K, or slightly larger than Texas, New South Wales has a diverse and varied landscape with mountains, vast plains, deserts, farmland and a long coast line. Places as different as Lightning Ridge and the Hunter Valley are perennial favourites, while other tourists flock to the beaches of the north and south coast in summer and to the snow fields in winter.

These are a Small group tour exploring the the North East region of New South Wales for mature and senior travellers. With an outback NSW Itinerary these NSW tour packages provide the platform for the senior traveler to Travel, learn and explore the history of New South Wales. Our small group experience explores New England’s history, places such as the Menindee lake and the Darling river, Port Macquarie on the coast. Your Outback NSW itinerary also will visit a National park and a regional outback town such as Bathurst, Dubbo, and the silver city, Broken hill.

New South Wales holidays feature stunningly beautiful beaches and metropolitan areas along the east coast, from Byron Bay in the north, down to Bateman’s Bay on the South Coast. There are also sprawling plains, lush rainforest, unique trees (think pre-historic Wollemi Pine), moon-scape deserts and bushland to be explored in outback NSW. The rugged mountain terrain in both the Blue Mountain , and Snowy Mountains regions, contrast with the plains of the inland. Culturally, Aboriginal history, overlain by colonial settlement, reflect current settlement patterns.

A charmer in Far West NSW where Priscilla queen of the desert brings Broken Hill, the mining town to life. Broken hill (AKA Silver city) is quirky, the Pro Hart gallery of the painter complete with Rolls royces is here as well as numerous other art galleries, the trades hall and monuments to the orchestra of the Titanic are present in this outback town are places to visit on a New South Wales Vacation.

New South Wales Sydney is the capital and also the largest. Central Sydney and one of the most famous cities in Australia , with its landmark attractions such as Bondi Beach, Darling harbour, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the iconic Sydney Opera House being among the most recognizable icons of Australia as a nation around circular quay. For like minded travellers interested in New South Wales Holidays there is a collection of places to explore and learn about, such as Historic Bourke in Outback NSW with the famous Crossley engine and historic buildings.

History

Originally inhabited by a broad and diverse range of Indigenous peoples , New South Wales ‘ colonial history began with the founding, by the British, of the New South Wales colony in the year 1788. The first area of settlement was broadly around what is now called The Rocks in Sydney . Originally established as a penal colony, settlement in New South Wales rapidly expanded across much of Australia , with explorers, such as Sturt, mapping the vast expanse of Australian landmass and European settlers appropriating land once the domain of the indigenous inhabitants. Squatters established vast sheep stations west of the mountains and towns began to develop. After gold was first discovered near Bathurst in 1851, the subsequent gold rushes of the mid 19th century provided a further impetus for development, with thousands of eager miners pouring into the colonies.

As the 19th century progressed, more newly settled regions gradually separated off from New South Wales , forming their own states such as Tasmania , South Australia , Victoria , Queensland , and New Zealand . By the end of the 19th century, with the majority of states already being granted independence from Britain, momentum for a federated Australia gained tremendous support, with the country eventually unifying in the year 1901. Selection of a capital city was a contentious issue at this time, with rival cities Sydney and Melbourne both vying for the position, as a compromise, the territory surrounding the city of Canberra was ceded by New South Wales , and a new capital was built.

Outside of Sydney, towns such as Bathurst, Goulburn and Wagga Wagga became important inland centres as more and more land was taken over for grazing. Bourke, on the Darling River was another important centre for New South Wales outback history, not just Bourke but the surrounding area including Cobar, Wilcannia and across to Brewarrina and up to Cunnamulla in Queensland. The Bourke region, is important for both Aboriginal and colonial history and this appeals to tourists today with the Bourke cemetery a regular stop. Whilst Bourke was major stop on the Darling River for paddle boats after Wilcannia and the Menindee Lakes, it was also a centre where livestock passed on their way north and south . Today, Odyssey’s NSW outback tours include the Darling River run, a Silver City tour of Broken Hill , a visit to World Heritage Lake Mungo National Park on our Western NSW tour, and a tour that takes you north from Dubbo through important colonial Armidale and Tenterfield. A tour with Odyssey provides many insights into both Australian indigenous and colonial history.

Mineral wealth was key to Broken Hill and Cobar in their settlement.

A unique small group journey into the NSW Outback

A small group tour into regional New South Wales and outback Australia is a journey between cities with less than 250 years of settlement history, and an outback , which has some of the oldest known geologic material on earth. But, more importantly, the region has one of the longest and truly fascinating known periods of human settlement which we seek to convey through this collection of small group travel programs. Indigenous Australians arrived on the continent by boat or via a land bridge from Southeast Asia possibly 85,000 years before the first Europeans from Portugal and Spain began exploration in the 17th century. For senior and mature travellers, a small group tour of Australia is a unique experience, a travel inspiration for the mature traveller interested in a small group journey.

Australia is a country the size of America, with one of the longest coastlines in the World, where some 80% of the population lives on the east coast , separated from the outback by the low mountains of the great dividing range. Australia ‘s geographic diversity, in landforms, flora, and wildlife, is part of its charm, providing the back drop for a small group adventure. Whilst the Great Barrier Reef , kangaroos and koalas are well known, the biodiversity in the native Australian wildlife to be seen on any escorted tour complete with a local guide into the outback , is amazing. This biodiversity is often missed until a good tour guide or travel expert shares their knowledge with you as you travel often on a epic journey across one of the world’s most beautiful and fascinating states of Australia .

New South Wales provides, as a minimum, two fascinating pieces of Aboriginal deep history to be visited on a small group tour of New South Wales . The first is the UNESCO listed world heritage site of the Willandra lakes region and importantly the Mungo Lakes National Park , the site of the discovery of Mungo Man and Mungo Lady . Aboriginal history is an important part of Australian history. These two skeletons (and human remains) represent Australia ‘s oldest known human remains and is an amazing lucky discovery by geologist Dr Jim Bowler 40 years ago. Several small group tours of NSW for seniors visit the Willandra lakes region from Balranald to see and learn about this important discovery in Australian history, not just Aboriginal history. These human remains have been dated to 42,000 years old, the oldest human remains in Australia and some of the oldest modern humans in the world outside of Africa. They date from a time when megafauna roamed the region and groups of indigenous Australian hunted in this part of western NSW.

The second important site we visit on our tour of Western NSW is the Brewarinna fish traps site, close to Bourke on the Darling river . Both of these locations were important meeting places for Aboriginal peoples. Both are considered to be part of the trading routes established long before the Silk road. Such locations as these across Australia were reached using Songlines.

It is not just the ancient aboriginal history of indigenous Australian that shapes and influences New South Wales , colonial history runs close along the East coast and the great dividing range that Odyssey takes mature and senior travellers to visit. Places such as Morpeth, influenced by John Eales from the Hunter valley , Armidale, Glenn Innes, Bathurst, Orange all have stories to share. In the south of the state, Goulburn, Balranald, Hay, Cowra, Young, Griffith and Wentworth all feature as well as Broken Hill , Silverton and Tibooburra and the relationship with contemporary artists such as Pro Hart and the Brushman of the Bush emerge .

Odyssey Travellers collection of Outback tours seeks to take the mature and senior traveller on a escorted small group tour with like minded people to places that teach and allow you to learn from hidden aboriginal art sites, to all manager of places that have contributed to the evolution of this state including its explorers.