Gold Trails NSW helps travellers find and understand the places where the New South Wales gold rush happened. We map self-drive routes, write in-depth guides to the towns and stories along them, and explain the practical things you need to know — from road conditions to fossicking rules.
Our history
The goldtrails.com.au domain was originally home to a regional tourism project that promoted six gold rush touring routes across central and southern NSW. That site went offline, and this independent guide was relaunched on the domain in 2026. We have kept the six-trail structure that many travellers knew, rewritten every page from fresh research, and kept old web addresses working wherever possible. We are not connected to the organisation that ran the previous site, and we do not speak for any council, tourism body or government agency.
How we research
Every guide is built from primary and authoritative sources: the State Library of NSW, the National Library of Australia’s Trove newspapers, the Australian Dictionary of Biography, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, the NSW Resources Regulator, Destination NSW and local historical societies. Where historians disagree — about who really found the first gold, say, or how much was taken at Escort Rock — we explain the disagreement rather than pick a convenient number. Each page lists its sources.
We do not invent quotes, statistics, prices or reviews. Opening hours, tours and access arrangements change often, so we tell you to confirm them with the operator rather than publishing details that may go stale.
Images
Photographs on this site are either our own or published under open licences such as Creative Commons, and are credited on the page and in our image credits. Historical images come from public-domain collections, mostly the State Library of NSW.
Independence and funding
Nobody can pay to change our guides or recommendations. If a page carries affiliate links, ads or a paid listing, it is clearly labelled, and our editorial policy explains how we make money.
Get in touch
We welcome corrections, local knowledge and questions. Use our contact form and we will check any correction against the sources before updating the page.