About Inverell
Last updated April 11, 2024
Our town
Situated in the New England Region on the banks of the beautiful Macintyre River, Inverell is a historic and picturesque town renowned for its vibrant, supportive community and the spectacular Inverell sapphire.
The town sits on the Gwydir Highway, which connects Western NSW with the east coast only 3.5 hours’ drive away. Known in the region as a fabulous destination for retail therapy, Inverell is a thriving tourist, commercial, service, and agricultural centre.
Nestled in a scenic valley at the foot of the Great Dividing Range, the surrounding area features swathes of national park wilderness, tranquil, meandering waterways, outstanding recreational areas and highly productive cropping, grazing, mixed farming, and mining land.
The rich, volcanic soil has provided the perfect environment for gems and minerals and by the 1950’s, Inverell had become the world’s biggest producer of sapphires, leading to the town’s title as Sapphire City. The area is popular with fossickers who regularly unearth not only sapphires, but topaz, diamonds, emeralds, quartz, garnets, citrine, rhodonite and tourmaline.
Inverell has a wonderfully pleasant climate and escapes the sweltering highs and alpine lows of other parts of the region, with a clear distinction of the seasons– crisp, frosty winters and warm, partly cloudy summers, with temperatures over the year typically varying from 4°C to 31°C.
Inverell Shire local government area covers an area of over 8,000 square kilometers right to the Queensland border and includes the villagers of Gilgai, Stannifer, Elsmore, Bukkulla, Ashford, Bonshaw, Yetman, Wallangra, Graman, Oakwood, Delungra, Mount Russell and Tingha.
Image courtesy of Inverell Council