There are glorious cycle touring and gravel riding opportunities in the NSW Central West’s Lachlan Valley. However, not many bike riders know about them yet!
Bicycle NSW Members Dominic Galvin and Chris Chacos have begun exploring the quiet backroads of this unsung region.
Dom and Chris, both teachers, bonded over a shared passion for active transport and the power of the bicycle to make better towns and cities.
Dom pledged to be a #CouncillorForActiveTransport in Bayside during the 2024 Council elections. Chris makes excellent YouTube videos that mix humour with a deep understanding of sustainable transport planning and urban design.
Last April, Dom and Chris ventured onto the Lachlan Valley Cycle Trail for a few days of cycling touring with a tent.
A huge thanks to Chris for sharing trip notes and photos from their time in Wiradjuri Country.
Chris Chacos (left) and Dominic Galvin hit the gravel on the Lachlan Valley Cycle Trail in April 2026
Planning the trip
When my mate Dom asked me if I wanted to go bikepacking with him, I couldn’t say no. But before venturing out to the quiet, scenic gravel of the Lachlan Valley, I’d largely cycled in urban areas for transportation and had no idea what to expect.
The Lachlan Valley Cycle Trail turned out to be the perfect first bikepacking route!
It consists of two loops passing through major towns as well as smaller villages via mostly safe, quiet roads, with clear instructions on the website.
This Ride with GPS map shows the entire Lachlan Valley Cycle Trail. The unpaved gravel sections – 55% of the route – are shown with white dashes. Dom and I only rode the highlighted part of the bottom loop, as well as a 10km side trip towards Conimbla National Park
A major hurdle is that if you don’t live in the region, there is no easy way to get a bike out there without driving. To take an XPT train to Parkes, you’ll have to disassemble and box your bike to get it on the train.
Fortunately for me, Dom already had a collection of council-cleanup-rescue bikes in Canowindra, including the steel-frame Reid 7-speed I’d be riding, and Mongoose with BMX handlebars for him.
Ready to go. Dom’s Mongoose (on the left) and my Reid
Day One: Canowindra to Eugowra
After a night in Canowindra, we set out for Eugowra in the late morning, bypassing the main street and pedalling for only a few minutes before we had turned off the asphalt onto a pair of bumpy, grassy tyre tracks surrounded by big old gumtrees that radiated birdsong.
Beaths Road just outside Canowindra
There is something deeply satisfying about exploring at the pace of a bicycle.
You’re fast enough to cover long distances, but slow enough that your senses are fully immersed in each new place, whether those places brought heat or shade, or birdsong or the flies buzzing in our ears that made cresting the hills and reaching fly-deterrent speed all the more satisfying as we coasted into Eugowra.
The first thing I noticed about Eugowra was that Pye Street had a wide, welcoming shared path, but the second thing was just how many demountable homes still stood around the village. See, in November 2022, a flood destroyed significant parts of Eugowra and devastated its citizens. Four years later, the village was still feeling the impact – so if you ride through, make sure to patronise the local businesses to help their recovery.
Day Two: Eugowra to Gooloogong
The next morning, after camping at the Eugowra Showground, we were roused by kookaburras and cockatoos and packed our tents by sunrise’s golden glow. We rode into town for breakfast at the Fat Parcel food van, which had been a café on Eugowra’s main street before the floods destroyed the building.
Despite the downsizing, the Fat Parcel echoed with laughs and yarns as pre-shift tradies and truckers sipped their brews and downed egg and bacon rolls in the warm sun. The food truck seemed a symbol of the town’s admirable resilience, and I think if the Lachlan Valley Cycle Trail was more well known, the tourism could really help Eugowra continue to bounce back.
After our excellent coffees and fortifying breakfast burgers, we set out for Gooloogong, a tiny village that was a 40km ride south. The roads were flat and smooth and we coasted along the quiet asphalt and champagne gravel, past charred fields and underneath whistling kites that circled and tumbled in far-off winds, calling their throaty trills.
My bike in front of a burnt field between Eugowra and Gooloogong
When we pulled into Gooloogong, we were charmed by the main street with its great old pub, impressive log cabin, and even a hairdresser with diesel pumps out the front.
After lunch at the pub, the whole afternoon still ahead of us, we embarked towards Conimbla National Park. We had no idea how far it was or what kind of roads would take us there, but as mountains rose on either side of us, not a car in sight, we realised we were in for a beautiful journey.
After 10km, we checked how far we were from the national park, and though it was on either side of us, we weren’t even halfway to the entrance. So we stopped at the side of the quiet dirt road under a towering eucalypt and listened to the distant birdsong as we sipped ginger beers, wind rustling through the trees, insects quietly buzzing and chirping.
Dom and I relax under a tree near Conimbla National Park
The feeling of peace at such moments is difficult to describe.
Day Three: Gooloogong to Canowindra
The next morning, we departed for our final day of riding back to Canowindra, skipping Cowra due to time constraints.
We soon found ourselves in verdant wine country. It was a different feel to yesterday entirely, lush and overcast instead of sunny, flat and dry. Unfenced vineyards and thick olive groves stretched along the undulating horizon as if we were cycling through an ancient Greek myth, then the Andes were added to the equation when some alpacas came up to say hello!
A friendly alpaca on the way back to Canowindra
After a final stretch of gravel flanked by stone fruit trees – though it was unfortunately too late in the season to find much ripe fruit – we approached Canowindra from the south, where a snaking road wound through the beautiful 19th-century main street.
Despite having fewer than 3,000 people, Canowindra felt positively metropolitan after our time in the bush: Gaskill Street was full of people, the signs on its buildings announcing the town’s bookshops, cafes, pubs and grocery stores were open for business.
Canowindra’s Gaskill Street as seen from Dom’s bike
We stopped at the Canowindra Hotel for lunch before a stroll along the Belubula River, already planning our next trip.
If you’re thinking of exploring the Lachlan Valley Cycling Trail yourself, I can heartily recommend it.
All images supplied by Chris and Dom.
Important links and resources
The Lachlan Valley Cycle Trail is a 345km touring route linking the towns of Forbes, Cowra, Eugowra, Gooloogong, Parkes and Canowindra. The trail avoids main roads, using secondary rural bitumen and gravel roads. The terrain is mostly flat and suitable for hybrid or gravel bikes, mountain bikes and e-bikes.
Many more great touring and gravel options can be found on the Ride Central West website, including the celebrated Central West Cycle Trail. Ride Central West aims to make trip planning a whole lot easier.
Several towns in the Central West can be reached by NSW TrainLink regional trains and coaches but you need to dismantle and box your bike to take it with you. There is better news! Following two successful trials of roll-on bikes on the Dubbo XPT, a permanent roll-on facility will soon be available to Bathurst, Orange and Dubbo. The start date has not yet been confirmed. Sign the Bicycle NSW roll-on bikes petition to be kept in the loop.
The Escapalicious website details a way of reaching Canowindra and the Lachlan Valley Cycle Trail from the train line at Orange via the fire trails of Mount Canobolas.
The Bicycle NSW Rides across NSW page has an inspiring selection of articles about rides in every corner of NSW.
Chris Chacos’s YouTube channel is Footpaths and Corner Stores. Check out My first overnight cycling adventure (was on a $40 bike) for the Lachlan Valley adventure before settling in for brilliant videos on topics such as the future of tolls, the abysmal shared paths of Sydney, the Oxford Street West cycleway and how bikes rewire your brain for democracy!
Dom Galvin stood for council in Bayside in 2024 on a platform of safer streets, more liveable neighbourhoods, improved access to green spaces, great public transport and connected, high-quality footpaths and bike paths. He explained how his interest in active transport was ignited after a youth steeped in car culture in our article From car guy to #CouncillorForActiveTransport.
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