Working in Dubbo: A Complete Guide for Corporate Visitors

Dubbo is the regional capital of the Orana region in western New South Wales — the city of 40,000 whose government offices, healthcare facilities, agricultural services, and transport-hub position at the intersection of three major highways make it the administrative and commercial centre for one of Australia's largest geographic catchments extending across the western plains from the Great Dividing Range to the South Australian border and from the Queensland border to the Riverina. The corporate visitor arrives for the government meeting in the regional office whose staff administer the services that the remote population depends on, the hospital placement whose clinical services the western NSW referral centre provides, the agricultural consultation whose client base extends across the pastoral and cropping properties whose combined production the region's economy depends on, or the professional engagement that the regional capital's commercial infrastructure attracts.

Getting There

The Mitchell Highway connects Sydney 400 kilometres southeast — approximately five hours of driving through the Blue Mountains, across the western plains through Bathurst and Orange, and into the increasingly flat pastoral country that the Dubbo approach traverses. The Newell Highway connects Melbourne to Brisbane via Dubbo — one of Australia's busiest inland freight routes. The Golden Highway connects the Hunter Valley. Flights operate from Dubbo City Airport to Sydney — the 90-minute flight replacing the five-hour drive for the business traveller whose productivity the travel day otherwise consumes. Rex Airlines and QantasLink operate the routes. The airport is 10 minutes from the CBD.

Climate and What to Pack

The climate features genuine seasons that the coastal visitor may not expect from the inland address: hot summers reaching 35 to 40 degrees with the dry heat that the low humidity produces and that the air conditioning resolves more comfortably than the humid heat of the coastal Queensland equivalents. Cold winters with morning frost, overnight temperatures reaching zero to five degrees, and daytime maximums of 14 to 18 degrees that require the jacket, the closed shoes, and the wardrobe adjustment that the visitor arriving from Sydney or Brisbane in July discovers they need upon stepping out of the terminal into the morning air whose chill the western-plains geography produces.

Where to Eat and What to Do

Self-catering manages the per-diem and provides the meal-timing flexibility. The town centre provides the café culture whose quality the 40,000 population sustains — the morning coffee, the lunch options, the evening dining. The Taronga Western Plains Zoo provides the after-work or weekend attraction whose quality justifies the visit that the business trip's schedule might otherwise prevent — the late-afternoon entry for the evening feeding time is the efficient approach for the time-constrained visitor. The Old Dubbo Gaol provides the heritage experience. Wellington Caves 50 kilometres south-east provides the geological day trip. The Macquarie River provides the walking and the fishing.