Introduction

Outback travel is a modern adventure. Often in air-conditioned comfort we cover many hundreds of kilometres each day, searching for that identifiable Australian experience.

Sometimes, in our haste we scarcely notice the land through which we pass. Rarely do we stop to consider what arduous journeys brought people here to settle so many years ago.

In the far north west of New South Wales is the outback region known as the Corner Country. This is an semi-arid landscape, sometimes heartbreaking, always surprising.

At the heart of the 'Corner is the tiny village of Milparinka. Despite being little more than a ghost of a town it has seen people make a great many arduous journeys, suffer great hard ship, and survive through sheer determination. Milparinka was the first official township of the Albert Goldfields.

Forty kilometres to the north of Milparinka is Tibooburra. Also beginning life in the 1800s as a part of the Albert Goldfields, Tibooburra survives today as a service centre amongst the vast expanses of the 'Corner. It rests on the edge of the fabulous Sturt National Park.

Two hundred and fifty kilometres to the south east is White Cliffs, a unique township set amongst the remains of 50 000 opal mine shafts. A little known settlement until a kangaroo shooter found the remarkable gem amongst pale sandstone hills, many local residents today live underground in dugout homes.

East of Milparinka, across the "cutline" from Tibooburra is Wanaaring (pronounced Won are ing), a village on the Paroo River, whilst to the North-West, beyond Cameron Corner, is Innamincka, one of Australia's most isolated communities.

Surrounding Milparinka, linking all these communities, are vast tracts of land . Gibber country, sanddunes, sand stone jumpups, coolibah creeks. These lands are home to the many families of the Corner Country, those whose make their living from the most enduring industry of the Corner Country, pastoralism.

We hope that, through your visit, you will come to know and understand something of our region and our way of life.

Enjoy your visit to the Corner Country.