Hill End

Hill End boomed after gold was found nearby, and by 1872 it held a population estimated in the thousands with dozens of pubs, hotels and stores along a main street of substantial buildings. The reef gold ran out, the town emptied, and what survives is a scatter of stone and timber buildings among empty lots on a windy ridge. The site is preserved as a historic site, and what makes it unusual is the record: the photographer Beaufoy Merlin documented the town in 1872 in a series of glass plate images, and copies are displayed at the exact spots where each was taken, so visitors can hold up the past against the gap. Artists have used the village as a retreat since the 1940s.

What you actually see

• The 1872 photographs - Merlin's images displayed where each was taken.
• The surviving buildings - stone and timber structures along the old street.
• The Royal Hotel - the pub still trading from the gold-rush era.
• The mining landscape - shafts, tailings and the Bald Hill mine nearby.

When to go

March to November for comfortable weather; the ridge is cold and exposed in winter and hot in midsummer. Weekends bring visitors and the pub and museum keep more reliable hours. Some roads in are unsealed and rough after rain.

Honest expectations

Most of the town is gone; this is an exercise in imagination rather than a preserved streetscape. Services are minimal, with one pub and limited food. The drive from Bathurst includes unsealed sections that are slow and dusty.

Nearby

Sofala, another gold village, lies between here and Bathurst; Mudgee is north.