Walgett: Stone’s Throw cafe brings a new buzz to the town’s hospitality scene

New faces in the hospitality scene along with “perfectly planned” weather events are helping revive an outback town in the state’s northwest. Here’s the latest.

Stone’s Throw owners Hollie Sharples and Jayden Miller.

A buzzing cafe and gift store in the state’s northwest has helped revive an outback town’s hospitality scene, while recent rain events are boosting the farming scene.

Walgett – likened to a “ghost town” during the most recent NSW drought before the pandemic struck – has enjoyed a boost in tourism due to new offerings in town while the farming community has seen increased interest from backpackers and farmhands.

Walgett mayor Jason Ramien said increased tourism had added economic development to not only the shire but small and local businesses around the region.

“We don’t want small businesses closing down, we want more small businesses to open, so if we can get tourists to help with that expansion then we can make our shire more attractive enough to keep them in the shire longer,” Mr Ramien said.

Walgett Shire Council mayor Jason Ramien. Photo: Supplied.

“Small businesses can stay viable, and they’ll stay open which is better for the local community because we’ve got more options and more shops to choose from.”

A Destination NSW spokesman said more than 660,000 people visited the state’s outback in the past 12 months before March, representing an increase of more than 13 per cent.

“Apart from being one of the most easily accessible parts of Australia’s ‘red centre’, the NSW outback is home to vibrant communities and diverse cultural and natural experiences like nowhere else,” the spokesman said.

“Whether it’s fossicking for opals at Lightning Ridge, joining thousands for a singalong under the starts at the annual Mundi Mundi Bash, or filling your Instagram feed with stunning images of Broken Hill’s Living Desert sculpture park at sunset, outback NSW is an incredibly special place with so much to offer.”

Pictured is the sign for Walgett on the Castlereagh Highway in NSW. Picture: Richard Dobson

Walgett cafe owners Hollie Sharples and Jayden Miller bought Stone’s Throw in January 2023 and have transformed the vibrant cafe with a bar, kitchen and an in-house and online gift shop.

“We’ve added a bar service, so we do Friday night dinners – they go off pretty good,” Ms Sharples said.

“The business has been very good. It’s been up and down with the usual sort of quiet periods which, in a small rural town, is pretty hard but when it comes up again and you get the travellers coming through, it’s pretty good.”

Stone's Throw in Walgett. Picture: Facebook

“Post Covid, it’s been a bit hard for the retail industry especially small businesses, but the town has been really supportive of us and we’ve not struggled too much because we’ve had their support.

“There’s a huge farming community here so lots of their family and friends will come to visit.

“Some of them were saying that we’ve got the best margaritas and they’re from Sydney.”

Mr Miller said their aim when buying the cafe was to “bring the city to the country”.

“When Hollie first moved out here, it was in the middle of the drought, so it was nearly a ghost town – there wasn’t too much going on,” he said.

The recent fall of steady rain has also brought backpackers and farmhands to Walgett to assist with the hospitality and agricultural industries.

Image taken of a dried-up bed of the Namoi River in Walgett in 2019. Picture: David Gray

Walgett farmer Paddy O'Brien.

Walgett farmer Paddy O’Brien said the recent fall had held the moisture in the soil which set the farm up for their planting schedule.

“The rain came in at the right time and has kept us on schedule,” Mr O’Brien said.

The 29-year-old said the rain in early April until June was a great start to the season as they planted wheat and would soon plant chickpeas.

“The way it’s timed itself is like someone has been saying a couple of good prayers,” he said.

“We’re always looking at the rain to see what’s coming up – a fortnightly event of rain is quite rare out here but lately we’ve been getting that, so we’ve been pretty lucky.”