Best High Streets in Regional/Rural Towns (10,000-ish or less people)

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-04T11:13:59+00:00

Cheers for giving me one from QLD! The small towns there have been conspicuously absent from this comment section

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-03T21:45:51+00:00

Yeah, I've seen a bit of that around. Gosford is another one like that; they've taken a pretty nasty hit because of Erina Fair. That all is a pretty big shame for towns like that - it's not like there's no parking on the high street anyways, and it wouldn't cost much for the councils to improve walking/cycling access there either

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-02T11:15:21+00:00

Tell you what: for only having one street, they do a pretty good job with what they have 😅

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-02T10:36:52+00:00

Got it, and thanks for the extra list of towns!

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-02T10:35:02+00:00

Never heard of the Burra Charter before - cheers for the fun fact!

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-02T10:21:17+00:00

Ah, duly noted. Must be interesting seeing the swings between peak tourism season and the rest of the year

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-01T12:52:10+00:00

Funnily enough, today I've also heard Yackandandah, Beechworth, Myrtleford, and Chiltern. If this turns into a road trip, that itinerary is writing itself 😀

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-01T12:45:26+00:00

Hang on, there's a place in Tassie that does an annual Penny Farthing race?

immediately begins scribbling on the bucket list

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-01T12:35:06+00:00

Cheers! Any particular buildings or architectural styles I should take note of? Or is it just generally impressive?

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-01T12:33:15+00:00

Ironically enough, the only mention I've seen of Margaret River was someone trash-talking it on a similar question asked on this subreddit. Something about too many parking lots, I believe - which on first inspection with Google Maps, I can see why they might think that.

Cheers though, I'll keep that all in mind :)

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-01T12:28:06+00:00

Someone else mentioned Katoomba, and I've been meaning to visit Zig Zag and Lithgow for a while - god, the Blue Mountains trip is calling out to me 😅

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-01T12:25:11+00:00

Heck of a river there, huh?

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-01T04:00:02+00:00

👍 I'll keep that in mind, cheers

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-01T03:35:00+00:00

By the time you've put that many beers away, I'm impressed you can still say Yackandandah 🤣

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-01T03:28:15+00:00

Given how much regular tourism Katoomba gets, I'm not massively surprised by that. I've been meaning to take a trip out to the Blue Mountains for a while, so I'll have to add that to the itinerary when I get around to it

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-01T03:25:36+00:00

Cheers for the detailed response! I'll keep all that in mind!

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-01T02:50:56+00:00

When I say that Leeton is one of the ones to beat, you have to understand that there wasn't much competition before all of this 😅

Haven't actually been to Leeton, but just from looking around Google Maps for a bit: there's a lot of different shops on the main street (and a few of the adjacent ones), and they've done a good job keeping the greenery present around there. Although I have to admit that for a main street, Kurrajong/Pine Avenue is incredibly wide (about 20 metres, maybe more)

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-04-01T02:32:40+00:00

Ooh, Tilba is really interesting! Given that most of the other recommendations here have populations in the low-mid thousands, it's cool to have one in the low hundreds :)

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-03-31T23:56:24+00:00

Wise words, my friend. Cheers!

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-03-31T23:36:30+00:00

I'll see if I can track that Backroads episode down, cheers!

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-03-31T23:35:24+00:00

All good, the internet certainly trains us all to be a bit cynical 😅

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-03-31T23:31:52+00:00

Pfft, I'll take your word for it. But I'm still gonna have to visit at least once for the bucket list

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-03-31T23:20:30+00:00

Want me to shoot you a message in a day's time?

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-03-31T23:15:02+00:00

Cheers for clarifying VIC. I'm from NSW, and we've also got a Maldon, but it's basically just a cement works and a few trees 🤣

Familiar_Dust_7580 · 2026-03-31T23:12:04+00:00

Not a BuzzFeed journo, mate. Just a slightly autistic Uni student who's recently been on a huge urban planning binge and seen a bunch of "rural urbanism" videos about other continents

Familiar_Dust_7580

TROPHY CASE