By Pavan Australia’s most photographed towns — Byron, Port Douglas, Margaret River — earned their fame. But the towns in this guide are where locals actually send their friends: places with real main streets, working pubs, and scenery that hasn’t been fenced off behind a ticket booth. Here are ten underrated Australian small towns worth building a trip around, state by state.
New South Wales
1. Wollombi, Hunter Valley
A sandstone village at the meeting of two convict-era roads, twenty minutes from Hunter wine country but a century away in pace. The Wollombi Tavern’s home-brewed "Dr Jurd’s Jungle Juice" has been a rite of passage since the 1970s.
2. Central Tilba, South Coast
A National Trust village of timber shopfronts under Gulaga (Mount Dromedary). Buy cheese at the ABC Cheese Factory, then climb Gulaga with a local guide — the summit is sacred to the Yuin people and the forest near the top is genuinely ancient.
Victoria
3. Port Fairy
Everyone races past on the Great Ocean Road; Port Fairy is the reward for continuing twenty minutes further. Georgian cottages, a working fishing fleet, and shearwaters returning to Griffiths Island at dusk each summer evening.
4. Beechworth
Gold-rush granite buildings, the cell where Ned Kelly was held, and one of regional Australia’s best food scenes — the honey shop and Bridge Road Brewers alone justify the drive from Melbourne.
Queensland
5. Yungaburra, Atherton Tablelands
A heritage village above Cairns where the air is ten degrees cooler than the coast. Platypus live in Peterson Creek in the middle of town; the 500-year-old Curtain Fig tree is five minutes away.
6. Childers
Avocado country with a leafy, National Trust-listed main street. It’s the antidote to the Bruce Highway — stop for the historic pharmacy museum and stay for the paddock-to-plate cafes.
South Australia
7. Burra
A copper-mining town of 19th-century stone cottages on the edge of the outback. Buy the self-drive Burra Passport key and let yourself into locked heritage sites, including the dugouts where miners’ families lived in the creek bank.
Tasmania
8. Stanley
A fishing village beneath The Nut, a 143-metre volcanic plug you can ride a chairlift up. Little penguins come ashore at dusk, and the seafood is landed metres from where you eat it.
Western Australia
9. Denmark
Margaret River’s quieter sibling on the south coast: Greens Pool’s boulder-sheltered swimming, tall-timber forest drives, and cool-climate wineries without the queues.
Northern Territory
10. Batchelor
The gateway town to Litchfield National Park that most visitors drive straight through. Stay a night and you’ll have Buley Rockhole to yourself before the Darwin day-trippers arrive at ten.
How to do small towns well
- Stay overnight. Day-trippers see shopfronts; overnighters meet the town at the pub and get the sunrise.
- Book the local, not the chain. Our unique stays directory lists farm stays, cottages and cabins run by people who live there.
- Time your visit around the market or festival. A small town on its market morning is a different place from the same town on a Tuesday.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a town "underrated"?
For this guide: fewer than 3,000 residents, no major tour-bus circuit, and at least three genuinely good reasons to stay a full weekend — scenery, food, history or all three.
What’s the best time of year to visit?
Autumn (March–May) is the safest all-round season: mild in the south, dry season beginning in the north, and shoulder-season pricing almost everywhere.
Find more places the booking sites skip in our hidden places directory, or explore by state from the homepage.
