Outback NSW road trip: Sydney to Mungo National Park in one week

by ling and jacE

‘Mungo National Park’ is on Paakantji, Ngyiampaa and Mutthi Mutthi land. We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Traditional Owners.

home / back to australia

We set out to the middle of nowhere, ending up between towns with no one else in sight. Outback NSW is so expansive that even after days of driving on our road trip, nothing seemed to change. Hours and hours of red. But all the best things came up in between—our tyres were covered in dust, we pulled over more times than we could count, and we just knew that we were travelling towards something spectacular.

We spent around one week road tripping to Mungo National Park and Broken Hill, stopping at several towns along the way. We hired a car from Rentalcars.com, which lets you compare prices across companies.

Here’s a full guide to our route, itinerary, and everything you need to know about planning a similar outback NSW road trip.

Outback NSW road trip itinerary

NSW is huge, so to avoid driving for more than five hours each day we made a lot of stops in the way. Here’s the full itinerary from Sydney to Mungo National Park, staying in Wagga Wagga and Balranald along the way, and returning through Broken Hill, Cobar and Mudgee on the way back.

Tips for an Outback NSW road trip

At the end of 2020 we wrote a bucket list for the new year, and one of the main things was seeing the full moon rise over the desert. We tried to plan this trip so many times before, but it was cancelled during the fires, the floods, and then the pandemic. Short of one disaster, outback NSW was ravaged by a mice plague this time around, but we decided to go ahead with the plan and finally visit Mungo National Park.

An outback NSW road trip leads to some of the most unique natural landscapes, but it can also take a bit of extra planning in case anything unexpected comes up. To get to places like Lake Mungo, or any remote corner of Australia, there are a few things we’ve kept in mind:

A lot of the outback roads are unsealed, so it’s best to drive a vehicle that’s high off the ground and capable of off-roading (we hired ours from Rentalcars.com);
There can be hundreds of kilometres between towns, which can make it hard to find petrol. It’s safer to map out the route before you go, and know how far you’ll be driving each day. We always broke up our route so that we weren’t driving for more than 5 hours each day;
There are sometimes very few places to find food, and many regions rely on periodic deliveries. Make sure you’re properly stocked before you leave the last town;
While the landscape is arid and dry, it does get extremely cold as soon as the sun goes down. Always bring warm clothes for the night;
Some areas can be subject to flooding, so it’s best to check for road closures in advance. If there has been any rain, we’d recommend calling the visitor’s centre at Mungo National Park before you leave.

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Wagga Wagga

Sydney to Wagga: 4 hours 52 mins

Wagga is around 5 hours’ drive from Sydney, so we decided to spend the first night there to break up our outback NSW road trip. The Murrumbidgee River flows through the town and there are also beautiful places to stop along the water’s edge along the way.

For accommodation, we stayed at Wagga Charles Sturt suites in a fairly large and modern 3 bedroom apartment.

2. Balranald

Wagga to Balranald: 4 hours

Balranald is around 100kms from Mungo National Park, making it one of the closest towns to Lake Mungo. We stayed in Balranald for one night before driving into the national park, and used it as the last stop to fill the car with petrol before we left. It’s not entirely necessary to buy food, as there is a restaurant in Mungo National Park, but we also decided to stock up on some fresh fruit and vegetables before leaving the town.

We stayed in the Balranald Club Motel, which ended up being around $50 each per night.

3. Mungo National Park

Balranald to Lake Mungo: 1 hour 45 mins

Mungo National Park has to be one of the most unique landscapes that we’ve visited in NSW, and it reminded us of everything that we love about travelling in Australia. It’s truly the highlight of our outback NSW road trip.

The sand and clay in Lake Mungo is continually carved by the wind and rain, continually revealing new rock formations and remains from over 40,000 years ago. Even within the few days we were there, new relics began to appear—we saw recent emu prints in the sand, and hints of an ancient camp fire in the clay where the sand had been blown away.

We stayed in Mungo Lodge for three nights and explored as much of the national park as possible. For everything that there is to see there, we’ve put up a full guide to visiting Mungo National Park here.

Everything you need to know about visiting Mungo National Park

Red Top Lookout, Mungo National Park at sunrise

4. Broken Hill

Lake Mungo to Broken Hill: 4 hours 15 mins

We kept driving until we made it to Broken Hill, one of the great remote and dusty corners of NSW. It’s a long way from Sydney, but we couldn’t leave it out of an outback NSW road trip. We spent a few days seeing all of the art galleries, a huge mix of architecture, and iconic movie sets. While we were there, we also drove a bit further to the famous Silverton, and watching the sunset from the Mundi Mundi Lookout ended up being one of our favourite parts of the road trip.

We spent two nights in the Broken Hill Red Earth Motel, which was a modern 3 bedroom apartment.

MAP HERE

5. Cobar

Broken Hill to Cobar: 4 hours 45 mins

After leaving Broken Hill, we stopped in Cobar to break up our outback road trip, a small town rich in both Aboriginal and mining history.

With just one night here, we were only able to visit the Fort Bourke Hill Lookout, a view of an old copper mine about 5 minutes’ drive out of town. Further out at about an hours’ drive from Cobar is the Mount Grenfell Historic Site, an art and nature walk that takes you to a desert waterhole, an ancient Aboriginal rock art site, and a scenic lookout.

We stayed in the Cobar Oasis Motel for our one night.

5. Mudgee

Cobar to Mudgee: 4 hours 30 mins

Our impressions of Mudgee are up in the Milky Way. When we arrived at night, we caught the clearest line of stars, stretching over our accommodation and across the field. Although it’s still remote, our outback NSW road trip had basically come to an end at Mudgee. In the morning, we went to check out the local vineyards and had lunch at the Lowe Family Wine Co.

For accommodation, Mudgee is the perfect place to enjoy a NSW farm stay. We spent one night at the Owl Head Lodge.