Gunnedah and surrounding shires featured in Destination NSW's The Long Road campaign to get tourists to the country

Gunnedah and surrounding shires feature heavily in a number of the interactive road trip itineraries on the Visit NSW website, as part of the initiative that hopes to drive domestic visitation following the bushfires and COVID-19.

They have also enlisted the help of high profile musicians like Amy Shark and Guy Sebastian who are hitting the road to encourage Aussies to take a road trip to regional NSW. The artists will be featured in The Long Road web series, hosted by Ash London.

The 'Kamilaroi Contrasts' road trip begins at Willow Tree, where tourists are encouraged to spend the night at the Willow Tree Inn and fuel up at the hotel's award-winning Graze Restaurant before dropping by the Liverpool Plains Visitor Information Centre.

They are then encouraged to hit the highway, stopping at Wallabadah and taking detours to Quirindi, Werris Creek and Tambar Springs before heading north to Gunnedah.

Suggestions include stopping at Gunnedah's Poets Precinct, before driving up to Pensioners Hill Lookout to admire four Heritage Sculptures illustrating Gunnedah's diverse heritage.

One of Australia's largest collections of early agriculture, industrial history and transport memorabilia - Gunnedah Rural Museum - is also suggested as a great place to visit before hitting the Bindea Walking Track and perhaps spotting a koala.

The road trip then continues to Boggabri, Narrabri, Wee Waa, Pilliga, Barren Junction, before heading up the Kamilaroi Highway to Walgett then Lightning Ridge, Brewarrina and ends in Bourke.

It is just one of a series of 28 refreshed road trip itineraries across the state. The itineraries are available on VisitNSW.com and Sydney.com and can be searched by interest such as culture and heritage or coastal and aquatic, by duration of one to five-plus days, or by region.

Each itinerary includes an interactive, sharable and downloadable map, points of interest along the route, links to popular tourism businesses, and an indication of drive time from Sydney or the nearest airport.

The campaign runs until June 2021.