Gilgandra is a smallish country town of 3000 people on the Castlereagh River in NSW's central west. It is situated at the junction of the Newell, Oxley and Castlereagh Highways, between Dubbo and Coonabarabran, 476 km north-west of Sydney and 280 m above sea-level. Known as the "Town of Windmills", Gilgandra once had a skyline dotted with windmills. As there was no reticulated town water supply until 1966, most residents supplied their own water needs from individual windmills, drawing water from the sub-artesian basin.
Gilgandra is a service centre to a mixed farming area focused principally on cropping, sheep and cattle, although pigs, poultry, aquaculture, ostriches, emus, deer, olives, buffaloes and a eucalypt plantation all contribute to the local economy.
Coonamble is a town about 50 km E of Quambone and 30 km E by N of Narraway State Forest. It is on the Castlereagh Hwy on the Western Plains, 518 km NW of Sydney. It unfortunately is typical of a lot of remote towns because there are a lot of shops vacant - and in Coonamble the shops close at 4 pm.
Warren is a very typical and quiet rural town on the Macquarie River with a population of about 2200 people. It is located on the Oxley Highway, 545 km north-west of Sydney, 80 km west of Gilgandra and 197 metres above sea-level.
The area is dominated by sheep and cotton. In fact the shire council refers to itself as the 'Wool and Cotton Capital'. Merino sheep have long been bred locally and there is an Auscott Cotton Gin just out of town. Other local produce includes wheat, oats, sorghum and maize. The caravan where we stayed had its own lawn mower sheep - his name is Barney.
