While Gunnedah does have some cotton crops, NARRABRI, 97km northwest via the oddly named communities of Boggabri and Baan Baa, is recognized as the commercial centre of cotton growing. A little smaller than Gunnedah, the town has a prosperous feel.
The tourist information centre, on Tibbereena Street (Mon–Fri 9am–1pm & 2–5pm, Sat & Sun 9am–noon; tel 02/6792 3583), can give you the times to go and see the five linked dishes of the Australia Telescope complex, 24km west on the Yarrie Lake Road. Opening times depend on what they’re tracking, but the centre is staffed Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm, entry is free and there are lots of computer models to play with. The other main attraction around Narrabri is Mount Kaputar National Park.
The camping facilities at Dawsons Spring include hot showers, and there are a couple of cabins with bathroom, kitchen and wood stove. The most striking geological feature of the park is Sawn Rocks, a basalt formation which looks like a series of organ pipes; it’s reached via the northern end of the park on the unsealed road heading to Bingara.
If you want to stay in Narrabri itself, or eat something, the Club House Hotel, 87 Maitland St, fits the bill on both counts, with a decent Italian restaurant (Tues–Sat dinner only) upstairs, and plainer pub meals downstairs. For a snack, Watson’s Bakery on Maitland Street serves good-quality pies and sandwiches to take away.
The drive from Narrabri to WEE WAA, roughly 40km west, warns of your entry into redneck territory – the roadside glitters with shattered bottles thrown from speeding cars. Wee Waa was where the Namoi cotton industry began in the 1960s, and the large cotton “gins” or processing plants are located here. During the picking and growing season (April–July) free guided tours leave Namoi Co-op (daily 10.30am & 2.30pm; 1hr 30min–3hr 30min), but you’ll need your car to get around the various areas. If you can stand the rather raw, dispirited town and the blazing summer heat, there’s cotton-chipping work here in abundance in December and January; ask at one of the two pubs on Rose Street, the main drag, and someone will send you in the right direction. From Wee Waa you can head west to Walgett and on to Lightning Ridge.
Mount
Kaputar National Park
Located 53km east of Narrabri this park features a peak on a receding edge
, the remnents of an 18 million year old volcano, the slopes of which are
covered with open forest and savannah woodland. The
park is a popular place for rockclimbers and has some great short
wilderness walks. The drive into the park to
the 1524-metre lookout – with its panoramic views encompassing
the vast Pillaga Scrub, the Warrumbungles and the New England Tablelands
– is steep, narrow and unsealed (call 02/6792 1147 for road
conditions).
There are eleven marked bushwalking trails in the park, with brochures available from the NPWS office in Narrabri at 165 Maitland St, or the visitors centre at Dawsons Spring campsite and picnic area, although the latter is not permanently staffed.