The ‘River Run Route’ follows the Darling River down to Tilpa and back, including stops at Shindy’s Inn at Louth, and the famous Tilpa Hotel, as well as numerous historic pub spots along the way.
Allow five hours to travel this route which overlaps a section of ‘The Darling River Run’. There are multiple options for this popular loop which can start at Cobar or Bourke, and go along either side of the river, or as we suggest, both! Starting in Bourke, the route takes the east side of the river to Louth along mostly gravel and dirt, well-formed major bush road, passing through the Gundabooka National Park campgrounds and Rose Isle farm stay before arriving in the historic village of Louth.
After a beer at Shindy’s Inn, and a yarn with the locals, we recommend you go down the river along the eastern side. It’s a very scenic dirt and gravel road, usually in good condition, but you should check with the locals after rain.
You’ll pass the Tilpa weir site a little before crossing the bridge where you’ll find the absolute must see Tilpa Pub, with its walls adorned with signatures and messages. You can leave your own mark for the price of a donation to the RFDS, and head back up the creek along the western side of the river. This small but mostly well-formed gravel road will take you past the farm stays of Kallara, Trilby, and historic Dunlop Station.
Both Louth and Tilpa pubs have meals, accommodation and phone/internet service – and cold beer of course! Check out the Two Rivers Loop to add sections to your adventure, around through Toorale, or back out through Cobar… or you can continue down the Darling River Run.
| Distance | Pub Stops | Duration | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 286km | 4 | 1-2 days | 5hrs |
Road Conditions
The roads on the ‘River Run’ Loop are almost all gravel and dirt, usually in good condition. Check local advice before travelling, and typically impassable when wet.
Back In The Day
Captain William Randall’s epic 1500 km journey up the Darling from the Murray junction aboard his asthmatic steamboat Gemini in 1859, signalled the creation of a new frontier for the colony of NSW. The rapid growth of frontage stations and river ports in the next two decades spring-boarded an all-out assault on the outback.
It was definitely a ‘Wild West’ era. As pastoral explorers and pioneer settlers mapped new lines over the boundaries of the traditional Aboriginal inhabitants, clashes were inevitable. The well-grassed plains were quickly overrun by cattle and sheep barons who borrowed heavily in creating monster stations. Some dreamed of building dynasties, others of quick riches and early retirement. The thin-skinned red country suffered and dreams were steadily blown away as dust.
It was some time before blue coated police troopers appeared from distant Sydney, so the itinerant workers arriving on riverboats from South Australia and Victoria and the overlanders droving stock down-river, pretty much made up their own rules. Bushranging and stock theft were not uncommon. In 1864, word of a uniformed policeman riding down-river from Bourke saw every station hand for fifty miles bolt for the bush!
Hotels and wayside taverns grew with the increase in traffic and the rumble of the mail coaches. Tank-sinkers, riverboat crews, drovers, blacksmiths, saddlers, boundary riders, shepherds, shearers, drifters, eccentrics and the odd bush ranger breasted the bars. “The men who drifted out to this frontier area were a mixed bunch – some were good, some were bad and some were more than a little crazy.” (Bobbie Hardy) Sadly, alcoholic degradation decimated the Aboriginal camps nearby.
Some squatters resisted the opening of wayside hotels near their stations that lured their workers with grog. Others built them as a way of keeping them. In the absence of government money, they invented their own IOU ‘shin-plaster’ currency that their workers passed over the bar in exchange for some very dubious brews concocted by shanty owners. One unscrupulous proprietress issued an oven-baked plaster for the undrunk portion of the shearer’s cheque that disintegrated when they secreted it in their boot on their way to the next shed!
A reporter travelling the Darling in the drought of 1883 painted a grim picture of the rough, unlicensed shanties thrown together in out of the way places. Polluted water drove men to places like the one he described kept by, “‘unsavoury women’ offering home-brewed ’lemonade and orange bitters.’” He commented ‘These shanties do incredible mischief. Many a poor wretch, maddened by the vile compounds supplied him, has wandered off, and has never been seen…until some stockman…has come across whitened bones – a mute record of another death from thirst.” The fare offered at the meal table was ‘a scraggy piece of boiled meat…flanked by a sodden loaf.” A dish of roast cockatoo and badly cooked potatoes could cost an exorbitant half a crown. He noted that not all hotels were this bad.
Pub Stops on the River Run Route
Stop and enjoy some of the best pubs in Western NSW!
Pub Locations
The Map below displays historical hotel markers and Pub Stops along the River Run Route. Select a location to read more.
Use the Travel Map & Itinerary for touring information to help you on your journey. Includes distances, locations, attractions and PDF downloads.,
Historical Hotels
Take a journey back in time and discover the historical pubs of outback NSW. These locations no longer exist, but they were once dotted all along roads of the Pub Route.
Read the history of these pioneering pubs of the outback.
Towns & Villages
Visit the Towns, Villages and Pubs of the ‘River Run Route’.
