Dubbo is a city in the Australian state of New South Wales and is located on the Macquarie River about 400 km northwest of Sydney . The central location is a crossroads of important north-south and west-east connections from New South Wales.
Dubbo was founded in 1849 and today has 34,339 inhabitants. The name comes from the Wiradjuri - Aborigines , who called the area "Tubbo", "Red Earth".
The city is one of the four main locations of Charles Sturt University . Dubbo's biggest tourist attraction is the Western Plains Zoo , the largest outdoor enclosure in Australia. There are more than a thousand animals on 300 hectares, in addition to the native species, including Bengali and white tigers.
Dubbo has a small airport and is the junction of major highways and railway lines. One railway line leads to Newcastle , two to Orange and from there to Sydney , one to Cobar or Bourke and another to Coonamble .
