Texas: Museums, River and Railway History

Texas can be explored from several angles: the Dumaresq River and opportunities for fishing sit alongside galleries, historic buildings and railway exhibits. For your stay, these themes differ not only in content but also in how you experience them—through exhibitions, sites to explore or an activity by the river.

Riverside setting and fishing

The town of Texas lies on the banks of the Dumaresq River; there are opportunities for fishing in the area around the river near Texas. The river is therefore part of the experience both geographically and through a specific activity. If you include nature and culture in your travel plans, you can consider fishing as a distinct option alongside visits to exhibitions and historic venues. This makes the river experience different from a visit focused on buildings and collections.

Exhibitions and regional culture

The Texas Cultural Centre and Regional Art Gallery regularly hosts travelling exhibitions and local exhibitions. The centre also presents a photographic exhibition about the 2011 floods. Travelling exhibitions and local displays sit alongside a clearly defined photographic theme. This distinguishes the centre from venues focused on historic buildings and collections.

Buildings and collections at the Heritage Centre

At the Texas Heritage Centre & Tobacco Museum, you can explore numerous buildings, including a small shearing shed, a harness room, a lock-up with stocks, a blacksmith’s shop, a general store with a post office, a farm hut and the Mission Hall. The complex also contains more than 2,000 catalogued objects, photographs and family histories. The different types of buildings and the collection offer distinct points of interest: you can focus on specific sites as well as on objects, photographs and family histories. In this way, the Heritage Centre combines buildings to explore with collection exhibits.

Rabbit Works and railway museum

The historic Texas Rabbit Works also includes the Riverside Freezing Works. The Texas Rabbit Works has been restored and is the only surviving processing works in Australia. As a restored processing site, it differs from an exhibition visit where changing or local displays are the main focus.

The Texas Railway Museum displays traditional, restored trains and carriages, as well as platforms, railway sleepers and restored tracks that visitors can explore. The focus extends beyond the vehicles: structural and technical railway features are also there to explore. If you are interested in railway history, the museum offers several kinds of objects and sites to discover.

The cultural venues differ primarily in how they present their themes: through exhibitions, buildings to explore and collection exhibits, a restored processing works, or railway features. The Dumaresq River adds the opportunity to fish to these cultural interests.

For the broader travel overview: Goondiwindi Regional.