During the 1960s Australian artists Clifton Pugh, Russell Drysdale and others spent time painting in the outback in the surround area. The ‘big wet of 1969 and resultant flood stranded Pugh and so to pass the time, he started to paint on the walls and so began the 'living' art gallery, to which many other artists contributed.
The Tibooburra Local Aboriginal land Council opened its office in 1991 after a lot of hard work and working from a home by the late Mrs Kathleen Beer.
"Wherever I go in the bush I always find my way back and always come out at the place where I want to go". Alfred Howitt, 1859. The surveyed north-west corner of NSW, Cameron Corner, is the point at which the states of NSW, Queensland and South Australia meet and it is this corner that forms the north-west boundary of Sturt National Park – one of NSW's largest National Parks at 340,000 ha.
Driving to Tibooburra
There are many different routes that can be taken when driving from any of the capital cities to Tibooburra; there are highway routes and adventure routes along the 'road less travelled' via sealed and unsealed roads.
As a general overview:
From Brisbane:
- Warrego Hwy <> Adventure Way <> Noccundra-Warry Warry Road (Unsealed) <> Silver City Highway
- Distance = 1,366km approx
From Sydney:
- Castlereagh Highway > Golden Highway <> Mitchell Highway <> White Cliffs Road <> Kayrunnera-White Cliffs Rd (Unsealed)
- Distance = 1,292km approx
From Melbourne:
- Calder Highway <> Silver City Highway
- Distance = 1,169km aprox
From Adelaide:
- Barrier Highway <> Silver City Highway
- Distance = 850km approx
How outback do you want to go? You drive 296 km north of Broken Hill, 39 km south of Tibooburra and 1,465 km from Sydney to a small turnoff from the Silver City Highway. All around the red dusty soils of Outback New South Wales stretch to the horizon. When gold was discovered in 1880 this became a thriving town but today it is a shadow of its former self. A reminder that only the hardest of human beings can live in such difficult conditions.