The tiny outback town of Tibooburra, renowned for being the hottest place in NSW, hosts an annual gymkhana, bikekhana and rodeo each Spring. 

As a fresh-to-the-outback, former city-slicker, I had to know whether the rodeo experience lived up to my romantic yet uninformed idea of it: a blur of line dancing, cowboy boots and something to do with bulls.

In the very north-western corner of New South Wales, in an area aptly named Corner Country, is a place that seems to tick all the boxes of the classic, quintessentially Australian outback town: Tibooburra.

On Thursday mornings the Indian Pacific train stops at the outback town of Broken Hill and travellers are invited on a tour; starting with scones, tea and coffee, milkshakes and spiders at Bell’s Milk Bar.

Petah first came to Broken Hill in the 90s to work here in the police force.

Jack is a writer, who moved to Broken Hill in 2011, after hearing about a story of a murder, and the wrong guy going to prison for it back in the 50s.

I met Uncle Badger one evening at his home in Broken Hill, where he was talking to US journalists about the Murray Darling water issues.

Dan came to Broken Hill to work on a film about water rights in the Baaka. He stayed and is now studying a PhD on water policy.

Peter and Patsy live in Silverton with their kelpie, Teddy - who barks at ghosts, and they run the only pub left standing in Silverton.

I met Brett one morning when he unlocked the pool gate for me at the motel, he said I was crazy to swim in the morning when it’s only twenty four degrees out, unless I was hungover.

Alex and Ollie are from Victoria, they got stuck here in one of the lockdowns and weren’t at all disappointed about it. They started dating, and moved into a little corrugated iron house up on the hill.

Aimee has lived all over Australia, but she moved back here to her hometown of Broken Hill about seven years ago.