Highlands & Hinterland

The Central Highlands and Hinterland offers a true taste of country Queensland with farm stays, museums, fossicking, gold prospecting and country music events.

You can take a sapphire tour to the gemfields of Central Queensland or experience real outback traditions like the Nebo rodeo held in May each year.

Get the Gold Rush fever when you fossick for gold at Clermont or enjoy the sunflower fields and stunning succession of the Peak Range mountains.

Step back in time and tour the hinterlands fascinating past and history at Nebo, Clermont and Copperfield Museums.

Places to visit

Nebo
Nebo has a diverse array of offerings, with significant coal deposits, prime gazing land and crop cultivation. Historical sites in the region include Lake Elphinstone, the Mount Britton Gold Mining site, and the intrepid traveller can find the site where Leichhardt camped as he explored the region in 1845.

In the early 1980's, to celebrate the Shire's Centenary in the 1983, a group of locals began the process of gathering the many relics of the past and putting them together in a museum collection originally situated in the old Nebo Police Station. Today's relocated museum is a tribute to that effort and to the pioneers of the past and well worth a visit.

The Nebo Shire Museum is the result of many locals coming together to gather relics and information on the Shire's past. Nebo has a diverse and interesting history and this can be viewed by visiting the museum.

Cathu State Forest
Along the rugged Clarke Range behind the Whitsunday coast, Cathu State Forest offers a quiet retreat for nature lovers. Featuring tall eucalypts, dense rainforest and pine plantations, this forest also provides magnificent views over the Whitsunday coastline. Take binoculars to watch wildlife: more than 100 species of birds, exquisite Ulysses butterflies, whiptail and agile wallabies, and northern quolls. Bushwalk or drive scenic tracks. From Clarke Range lookout, seven kilometres from the camping area, enjoy the views. Picnic or camp beside seasonal Pandanus Creek. Before cycling or horse riding, contact Queensland Parks and Wildlife Mackay. Dogs are permitted on a leash and in daytime only.

Eton
Eton is situated on the Peak Downs Highway and is approximately 25 kilometres west of Mackay city. This little sugar town has a popular country hotel, lovely catholic church, butcher, general store and showgrounds where the local pony club is regularly seen practising and competing. Just past the township of Eton, you can enjoy country life to the full at Stoney Creek. Go horse trail riding or join a cattle muster, complete with a barbecue lunch including damper and billy tea, budget and cottage accommodation is also available.

Richmond
Imagine being in a place so diverse, so vast, you feel an indescribable sense of freedom. From the plains of the downs country to the silvery shimmer of the sun shining on the gidgee trees in the forest country, Richmond is often referred to as an oasis in the Outback.

Crossing the rolling downs country of north west Queensland, originally opened to white settlement by the explorer William Landsborough in 1862, the township of Richmond is a welcome sight on the horizon. Situated on the Overlander's Way halfway between Townsville and Mount Isa, the town is located on the bank of Queensland's longest river, the Flinders, and is known for its recreational Lake Fred Tritton and bougainvillea-lined streets, parks and gardens.

Lake Fred Tritton is conveniently located at the edge of town. With a one point two kilometre circumference and a maximum depth of eight metres, Lake Fred Tritton allows visitors and locals the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of water sports.

Richmond's Community Bush Tucker Garden is a new attraction. The Gardens were a joint project with local Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members.

Richmond is home to the award-winning major attraction Kronosaurus Korner, where you will find the only museum in Australia primarily dedicated to displaying marine reptiles, as well as a very special dinosaur. Minmi, with impressions of its fossilised skin, is considered to be Australia's best preserved dinosaur skeleton. Minmi takes pride of place alongside the Richmond Pliosaur skeletons. This fossil, found in 1989, has to be seen to be believed.