Off-Train Experiences

This survey will provide some background information, and allow you to choose various aspects of your tour.

To start, can we confirm your preferred name – this will appear on your name badge.

We’d also like to confirm your mobile phone number – during the tour we use text messages to provide you with service and activity updates, and to keep you up to date with any changes to the itinerary.

We are Simon and Danielle, the owners of the train.

As private preservationists, we are passionate about saving our fleet of ex-Southern Aurora carriages, and we have restored them to their original 1962 condition.

We believe the best way to preserve these carriages, is to use them to run rail tours around NSW, along with some terrific vintage locomotives.

We are on every tour as your hosts, so please join us on this great adventure, and help us preserve these iconic carriages.

Our chefs on board, Scott and Belinda, will be providing you with some lovely meals during the tour.

Breakfast will be an open sitting between 6:30 and 8:15, with your choice of either a continental breakfast in the lounge carriage or a full cooked breakfast in the dining carriage.

Lunch and Dinner served on board the train will be in sittings per below.

Please be aware that the dining carriage has 12 tables of 4, so you may be sitting with people from outside your party. You of course are welcome to sit with friends/family who you are travelling with.

Guests on the early sittings are asked to be mindful of guests on the later sitting. Please move to the Lounge Carriage by the end of your meal sitting time (half past the hour), to ensure guests on the later sittings don’t have their meal delayed.

Please advise us if you require a particular sitting for medical reasons.

Today all guests will be visiting the Hunter Valley, and we have three choices of off-train experiences for you.

Hunter Valley Gardens and the Village – visit the 10 amazingly themed gardens with influences from all over the world. You will then have a choice of staying at the Gardens for longer, or walk or take the coach to the nearby Hunter Valley Gardens Shopping Village with its unique collection of boutique retailers promoting the best local produce, artistic talent, contemporary cafe dining and cellar door wine tasting (Lunch own arrangements); or

Hunter Valley Gardens and Audrey Wilkinson Wines – after viewing the gardens, board a coach to visit this winery established in 1866, set on top of a hill overlooking the vineyards. You will enjoy a guided wine tasting (light lunch included); or

Margan Wines – Our guests have been very impressed with this boutique winery experience. Travel by coach to Broke. Walk through the vineyards into the winery for a guided, behind the scenes tour. Learn how the single vineyard and sustainably farmed wines are made from vine to glass in this award winning winery. This option does NOT visit the Hunter Valley Gardens. To choose this option you must have good mobility (light lunch included).

After breakfast this morning we will enjoy a choice of two off-train experiences.

Quirindi Rural Heritage Village – board coaches to travel to nearby Quirindi, and explore the village which has been designed to collect, preserve, restore, interpret and exhibit artefacts that relate to the history, heritage and culture of the Liverpool Plains area. The well presented Museum and refreshing coffee shop make up the main Federation Pavilion. There are other major buildings that display tractors, engines and machinery. Board coaches to return to Werris Creek Station where you will have an opportunity to visit the Railway Journeys Museum. Lunch will be served on board in the dining carriage; or

The Plantation, Premer – Coaches will take you to the Railway Journeys Museum at Werris Creek Station for approx 1 hour, before reboarding the coaches and travelling approximately 1 hour to ‘The Plantation’ where we will meet 4th generation farmer, Georgina Simson whose family runs a mixed farming enterprise including broad acre farming and breeding commercial poll Hereford cattle. Lunch will be provided, before the train comes to pick us up at nearby Premer Station.

We’ll have an early start this morning to join 4th generation orchardist Paula Charnock at Hillside Harvest for breakfast. You’ll enjoy a guided tour of the orchard, or pop next door for a wine tasting with Terry from Orange Mountain wines. You’ll then enjoy a ‘city highlights’ tour of Orange. We have three different options for the remainder of the day:

Abercrombie House – we’ll travel on the Aurora Australis to Bathurst where a coach will take you to Abercrombie House, an outstanding example of Victorian Tudor style architecture, built by the Stewart family in the 1870’s. The Morgan family purchased the house in 1969, have made major restorations and currently live in the house. Lunch will be provided at Abercrombie House; or

Mayfield Garden – a coach will take you directly from Orange to Mayfield Garden, about an hour away. Here you will see one of the world’s largest privately owned cool climate gardens. Covering more than 64 hectares, the scale of the gardens is truly breathtaking. At the garden, you can enjoy the provided lunch at your leisure in numerous picnic spots. The coach will return you to the train at Bathurst Station; or

Free Time -you may choose to spend time on your own today in Bathurst, with heritage listed buildings, world class museums and galleries just a short walk from the train station.

You’ll enjoy breakfast on board the train before enjoying a choice of two options.

Rylstone Village – The district was settled in the 1820’s, making it one of the oldest settlements west of the Great Dividing Range. Rylstones streetscape features 19th century sandstone public houses, cottages and government buildings; or

Kandos Museum – Kandos is the town that made the cement that made your town. Established by the cement works in 1914, Kandos thrived as a modern 20th century town in a spectacular rural setting. With the cement works closing in 2011, Kandos Museum has a vital role in preserving the town’s industrial and social history.

Lunch at Rylstone Olive Press – After your visit to Rylstone Village or Kandos Museum, we’ll transfer you to Rylstone Olive Press where you will learn about growing Olives and the cold press process to make Olive Oil, before enjoying a light lunch, an Olive Oil tasting, and if you’d like, a wine tasting with Debra from Elephant Mountain Wines.

After lunch, we will reboard the ‘Aurora Australis’ and commence the final leg of our journey, through the spectacular Capertee Valley. Enjoy an afternoon tea as we travel through the Blue Mountains (optional departure at Katoomba at approx 18:00) to Central Station, Sydney, where the tour will conclude at approximately 20:00pm.

Goulburn has a rich history, proclaimed as Australia’s first inland city in 1863, and one of the joys of visiting the City is the stunning Victorian architecture.

You have a choice of 3 museums to visit today, or you have the option of ‘Free Time’. We will be stabled at the station tonight, so you have the option of exploring Goulburn at your leisure before and after dinner.

Goulburn Historic Waterworks Museum – a bus will take you to see the only complete, operational steam powered municipal water supply left in its original location in the Southern Hemisphere. Museum Volunteers will be on hand to talk with you about the steam engine.

Rocky Hill War Memorial Museum – a new state of the art museum building was opened in March 2020, and the current exhibition is “Goulburn 1939-1945: A memoir of service and the home front”

Goulburn Rail Heritage Centre – the Goulburn Locomotive Roundhouse is the largest heritage based operating roundhouse in NSW and displays the historic transition from steam to diesel operation. It is also Vintage Rail Journeys restoration/maintenance base.

Free Time – take the Self-Guided Heritage Tour – Featuring a number of notable buildings and an eclectic mix of heritage architecture, this tour will give you a brief glance back to some of Goulburn’s fascinating history. There are plenty of opportunities to stop off along the way to fully immerse yourself in Goulburn’s past. Allow a little extra time to embrace the surroundings, taste the delights in the many cafes along the way and partake in some retail therapy along Auburn Street.

Your tour will depart Central Station just before 11:00am. Due to the ongoing trackwork which has forced us to delay your tour by a day, we will have the rare opportunity of traveling via the spectacular South Coast/Illawarra Line. We will travel through the Royal National Park and experience spectacular views of the South Coast to Wollongong. We then travel on a freight only line up the Illawarra escarpment, to Robertson Station, arriving after lunch.

We have a choice of two off-train experiences for you this afternoon

Fairground Follies, Bowral – Craig Robson has amassed an amazing private collection of unique musical fairground equipment, housed in a private warehouse which is not normally open to the public. You’ll see a 100 year old carousel, showmans’ steam engines, thousands of fairy lights, dance hall organs, violin playing machines, and much more. We’ve been able to visit Craig’s amazing private collection previously, and our guests were absolutely delighted.

Retford Park, Bowral – a place of great heritage significance. Its European history extends back to grants of land promised to Edward Riley senior by Governor Macquarie in 1821. The house was built in 1887 by Samuel Hordern (1849-1909) merchant and stockbreeder, and his wife Jane nee Booth. The house at Retford Park (designed by Albert Bond) is set on a low rise, a grand rendered brick Italianate style residence. In 1964 James Fairfax bought the property and started to turn it from an agricultural property to a gentleman’s residence. National Trust volunteer guides will provide a tour of the house.

Coaches will return you to the train at Moss Vale Station in time for dinner sittings, as we travel to Goulburn. We will be stabled at Goulburn Railway station tonight, so you have the option of exploring Goulburn at your leisure after dinner.

We will stop at the Historic Junee Railway Station for approximately 30 minutes while the locomotives ‘run around’ our train. While this occurs, we will have an opportunity to stretch our legs, before re-boarding the train to travel to Coolamon.

You have two Off-Train Experiences to choose from today.

Junee Roundhouse Museum – a coach will be waiting at the Junee Railway Station to take you to the Junee Roundhouse Museum where volunteers will be on hand to take you through displays. The Junee Roundhouse is one of few surviving, working railway Roundhouses in the Southern Hemisphere. It was the last steam locomotive depot built for New South Wales Railways. On permanent display at the Roundhouse are several diesel locomotives, passenger carriages, two steam locomotives, a guard’s van and a number of trikes. You will then board coaches to Coolamon where you can purchase lunch (own arrangements) before boarding the train; or

Coolamon Off-Train Experience – remain on the train and travel to Coolamon. All guests will do a self guided walking tour of Cowabbie Street, the main street of Coolamon. Arriving at the Railway Station at one end of town, we will walk one side of W.E Pieper Park along the charming streetscape to the other end of town flanked by the Fire Station. Coolamon is well known for its preserved buildings and architecture on both sides of the street. You will discover some hidden treasures along your walk today, and find a cafe to purchase lunch (own arrangements).. We have an additional complimentary off-train experience for guests today. The Coolamon Cheese Factory has designed a 20 minute factory tour and cheese tasting.

We’ll board coaches early this morning to enjoy breakfast at Piccolo Family Farm in Griffith. Peter & Luke will explain their sustainable farming practices before you enjoy breakfast in their new ‘cellar door’.

We have three additional complimentary off-train experiences for guests. If you would like to participate, please indicate below.

Calabria Family Wine Board a coach to take you to ‘Banna Avenue’ where you will have approximately 2 hours to explore Griffith. Reboard the coach to travel the short distance to the Calabria Family Wine Cellar Door, where you will have a delightful time tasting Calabria’s fine wine, with an accompanying light antipasto lunch.

De Bortoli Wine and Il Campo Garden visit – Emeri De Bortoli has transformed a 14 acre plot into a beautifully landscaped memorial garden dedicated to her late husband Deen. Guests take a stroll through the garden as well as experience a wine tasting at the De Bortoli Cellar Door just across the road. The coach will then take you to ‘Banna Avenue’ where you can enjoy the remainder of the afternoon, and lunch (own arrangements).

Morella Grove and Whitton Malt House – Established by the Dal Bon family, Natasha and her Dad, Frank are passionate about their produce and guests will experience a farm visit to Morella Grove. Frank will tell the story of the farm, the water efficient practices and the many processes the olives go through. You’ll then continue on to Whitton Malt House, where you will have a guided tour of the Southern Cotton Gin. You will need good mobility as there is a flight of stairs into the Gin. After your tour you can purchase lunch from the Whitton Malt House Cafe (extra cost). After lunch, you can enjoy guided Voyager Malt Whisky Tastings, Craft Beer or Gin Paddles (extra cost). The coach will then take you to Yenda Grain Siding to re-board the train.

We will be stabled on the grain siding at Temora overnight. During Breakfast sittings, the Flxible Clipper will provide shuttles across to the Temora Railway Station so you can explore the excellent museum and meet the volunteers.

After breakfast, coaches will take you from the train to a choice of two off-train experiences.

Bundawarrah Centre (Temora Rural Museum) – The Bundawarrah Centre houses the Temora Rural Museum, Ambulance Museum, visiting exhibitions such as the Bald Archies, and the Visitor Information Centre.

Temora Aviation Museum – The Temora Aviation Museum inspires the community to acknowledge the role played by Australia’s historic ex-military aircraft, and encourages visitors to learn and be inspired through its collection of aircraft to remember the efforts of the men and women who flew and supported them during times of conflict.

Today we will leave our train at the historic Mount Victoria Station.

Explorer Bus our bus partners, Fantastic Aussie Tours, will take us on a guided tour of the Blue Mountains Villages in their Blue Mountains Explorer Buses. Lunch will be at your own arrangements in Leura Village.

Additional Cost Option – Scenic World $49.90 There’s no better way to enjoy the iconic views of the World-Heritage listed UNESCO Blue Mountains, than with a Scenic World Unlimited Discovery Pass. Navigate the site as you like, at your own pace. Hop aboard the world’s steepest railway into the Jamison Valley. Explore an easy walk of raised boardwalks through the rainforest, spotting Lyre Birds and ancient tree ferns amongst other flora and fauna. Ride the Cableway, to cruise past the sandstone escarpment and Orphan Rock. No visit is complete without gliding past Katoomba Falls and the Three Sisters on the iconic Skyway. You can enjoy it all as many times as you can squeeze into one day on the Unlimited Discovery Pass. Payment can be made at the Lounge Carriage Onboard. Fantastic Aussie Tours will provide coach transfers from Mount Victoria to Scenic World, and on to Leura for lunch.

We will re-board the Aurora Australis at Katoomba Station for our final run to Central Station, Sydney.

Your North Coast adventure starts at Central Station, Sydney. Welcome aboard the Aurora Australis where you can choose to sit in the lounge or dining cars, or your private cabin. Today we’ll spend all day on the train. We’ll travel over the spectacular Hawkesbury River, alongside Mullet Creek and through the ‘Venice of Australia’ to Brisbane Water. We skirt around Newcastle and on to Maitland in the Hunter Valley, where we turn right to join the meandering North Coast Line.

At Gloucester, the North Coast Line starts to follow the Gloucester River, continuing the enjoyment of travelling beside the water. The Gloucester River joins the Manning River and we follow it through Taree and on to Kundabung Siding (just short of Kempsey), where we will be stabled for the night.

We’ll arrive just in time for dinner, served on board in the dining carriage.

Enjoy breakfast on-board the Aurora Australis before boarding coaches to explore Port Macquarie.We’ll take a scenic lunch cruise of the tranquil waters of Port Macquarie, with the possibility of seeing dolphins, turtles, osprey and sea eagles. Enjoy the tranquil rural landscapes and abundant wildlife of the Hastings River.

We’ll return to the train after lunch, as we continue down the North Coast Line. We will be travelling for around five hours through some interesting landscapes. We will be inland for a while before turning to the coast again and travelling along the water, past Sawtell and through Coffs Harbour. We then turn inland again, arriving at Nammoona Siding (just past Casino) as dinner is served in the dining carriages on-board the train.

Today you will board coaches which will take you to Byron Bay, a place known for its natural attractions and eclectic community.

You have two options today.

The Producers (Zentveld’s Coffee and Duck Creek Macadamia Nuts). Rebecca Zentveld will give you an exclusive look at her family’s coffee roasting facility, which will see you walking through the plantation and seeing the coffee being grown, watching as the team roast the beans and taste testing their Australian coffee creations. You’ll also meet one of the famers from Duck Creek Macadamia Nuts, who have built a reputation as a producer of Australia’s finest Macadamia Products.

Cape Byron Lighthouse Our coach will take you on a scenic tour of Byron Bay and a visit to the Cape Byron Lighthouse and Maritime Museum.

We will then take you to Byron Bay for your lunch (own arrangements) then return on the Byron Bay Solar train from the Main Station to North Beach where you will rejoin coaches. You will be back on board the Aurora Australis by 15:30 for our 16:00 departure to Kempsey.

Today you have two choices:

Arakoon National Park and the South West Rocks area. National Parks in this area have the best vantage points to see whales during their annual migration (from May to November). You will walk through the Trial Bay Gaol, an open air museum which captures the history of the Gaol. We have secured the incredibly knowledgeable Carolyn McPhee from the National Parks and Wildlife Service to provide a special behind the scene tour.

Kempsey Museums where you can experience Aboriginal history, boot making, timber industry, military history, natural history, dairy industry, shipping, historical vehicles to name just a few subjects touched on in the collections, displays and historic artifacts. You can also spend time in the Dunghutti-Ngaku Aboriginal Art Gallery, the gallery showcases and markets works of prominent, established and emerging Aboriginal artists of the Dunghutti region and Mid North Coast area. Local volunteers are eager to share the rich history of this area.

Both coaches will take all guests to the Slim Dusty Centre, an innovative museum dedicated to Australia’s iconic legend Slim Dusty where you will experience a wealth of music history and Australian culture and art. You will then enjoy lunch at the Centre.

Today you will explore the historic villages of Maitland and Morpeth:

Maitland where you will spend time at the 1870 built Grossman House, restored by the National Trust in the 1960’s and the Maitland Regional Art Gallery; and

Morpeth, an historic inland river port alongside the Hunter River. A visit to Morpeth is a real journey through time. Visit the narrow laneways, walk along sandstone footpaths and into heritage buildings where you’ll discover unique shopping, artisan treasures and delightful treats. Lunch is at your own arrangements amongst the Cafes.

We will reboard the train at Maitland for the last time, travelling back past Brisbane Water and the Hawkesbury River. Afternoon tea will be served in the Lounge & Dining Carriafes prior to concluding your railway journey at Central Station, Sydney at approximately 19:35.