Guiding you on your backroads journey, are a number of interpretive panels, telling the story of the land you are travelling through. Why not pull over and take a moment to read and learn.
From our paddocks come some of the best of Australia’s beef, lamb, wool and grain. But it’s been a hard-won success. You’ll learn about the search for water and the despair of watching the earth crack open in drought, the long wait for the railway to arrive and finally connect remote settlers with city markets and - most importantly - with each other. On our wide plains, parents built a school with their bare hands, bare knuckle boxers fought, and mechanised shearing was invented. We even have an earthquake zone to show you.
Above all, we hope you will come to understand how people on the land care for it. From the original custodians, the Aboriginal tribes, over thousands of years, to the early pioneering families. Similarly, you will see how our modern farming communities are constantly adapting, evolving and caring for the environment in which they live and work. You will gain insights into the way your food is produced in this area, and get to meet some of the people who grow and create it. The resources behind the Backroads Trail include historians, ecologists, agricultural experts and Indigenous archaeologists, as well as many farming families who have generously donated knowledge, time and personal photographs. The lovely country towns of Moama, Mathoura, Deniliquin and Barham are the gateways to the Backroads Trail, and we recommend you mix your Trail touring with time to stay and play in these centres and in the small villages dotted along the route.
All along the Trail, you’ll find very special niche businesses offering you delicious delights such as meads, avocados, wines, honey, olives and citrus fruit - and even British-style pork pies and haggis. Hand made and nurtured from paddock to plate, our beautiful local produce is available for you to sample whilst chatting with the producers - driving around the Backroads Trail is like taking part in a progressive farmers’ market.
Visit working artists’ studios, and pick up some of their works to take home. At Barham and Koondrook, associated with the redgum timber milling industry for more than a century, you’ll discover unique redgum carvings done by chainsaw. The Gulpa Creek bird hide near Mathoura allows you to get up close to birds basking in their prime habitat of the extensive Gulpa Creek wetlands, or perhaps you'd like to wander the wetland walking trail at Restdown Wines in Caldwell or admire the outdoor sculptures at Mathoura and Deniliquin, that were especially commissioned as part of The Long Paddock Touring Route.
You can be sure of high-quality accommodation at night and a beautiful breakfast in the morning to sustain you through another day of historic Backroads Trail touring.
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