Lithgow

Lithgow wears its industrial history openly, and uses it as a doorway to some of the strangest, wildest country in New South Wales. Walk an abandoned railway tunnel that now glows with thousands of glow worms, ride the historic Zig Zag Railway down its famous switchbacks, and stand among the weathered rock pagodas of the Gardens of Stone. Then go bigger: the Capertee Valley — wider than the Grand Canyon — and the vast limestone chambers of Jenolan Caves are both close by. The secret's getting out.