Burren Junction is a small town 51 km west of Wee Waa, on the road to Walgett and Lightning Ridge. Its 2 most distinctive features are the hot artesian bore bath and the Junction City Hotel.

The settlement of Burren Junction came into being in 1902 as a large railway camp, during an extension of the railway line from Narrabri west towards Walgett.The name Burren was probably chosen in deference to nearby Burran Station which had been settled in the 1860's and already supported an inn and store.Burren is said to be a Kamilaroi word meaning boomerang, and the junction was added when the railway was extended towards Walgett and Collarenebri.Most of Burren's streets were named after British war victories.In its hey day Burren was a bustling town that supported a busy railway station with daily goods and passenger trains from Sydney, a hospital, bakery, butchery, several stock and station agents (with one of the busiest trucking yards for loading stock to market), two general stores, fuel depots, a court house, bank and a school with over 150 students.The north west hard-court tennis championships were held in Burren for almost 60 years.Nowadays it is still a large agricultural area busy with wheat and cotton, cattle and sheep.

The Burren Junction Bore bath was first sunk in 1921.  Water ran from the bore into a series of bore drains (ditches) which distributed the water around the district for various agricultural and domestic uses.  The water found in bore baths such as Burren Junction, Walgett and Lightning ridge comes from the Great Artesian Basin and is approximately two million years old.  Bore depth is logged at 689.8m (2262ft) and natural pressure sends the water to the surface through an artesian bore and it maintains a constant temperature of approx 41.5 degrees celsius.

The Great Artesioan Basin is one of the worlds largest freshwater basins in the world; it contains approximately 8,700 million mega litres of water and underlies 22% of Australia and 26% of New South Wales.  The Basin supports 200,000 people and underpins $3.5 billion of production annually.

The water now runs into the pool from the bore and then out into the holding ponds where it evaporates into the air.  If the evaporation ponds fill up the bore flow must be turned off until the water level goes down.  Water originally flowed continuously at 20 litres/second, 450 million litres was wasted annually.  Water flow has been reduced saving 11 litres per second.

The bores supply these baths are only a few of hundreds being rehabilitated; replacing bore drains with underground pipes.

The hotel has entertainment on most weekends and cabin accommodation has meals 7 days a week and is know as the Husband Day Care, you can also have a quiet drink with the Grogfather most days.  For more information on this fine establishment where you can always get a drink and some food every day of the week take a look at the fabulous website by clicking here.

Burren Junction Bore Baths are a feature of the Great Artesian Drive a website about all the Boree Baths in the North West.