Getting there: Dungog is about an hour's drive (say 70 kilometres) from Newcastle. Head up the Pacific Highway and turn left onto Italia Road, Balickera, and onto East Seaham Road, or turn off at Raymond Terrace and take Seaham Road up to Clarence Town. CityRail runs a handful of services to the town.
Who should go: Families and outdoor types. The area is great for picnics and camping.
What to see: The historic buildings in and around Dowling Street, Chichester Dam, the Williams River. Barrington Tops is about 20 kilometres away.
Where to eat: There are several options in the main street, including the Coffee Bean Cafe, Banks Bistro, Chillbillies. Then there's Rattler's Restaurant, at Carriageway homestead and accommodation, Clarence Town Road, on Saturdays.
Best kept secret: Not quite a secret, but residents recommend the scenic drive home via Gresford. Follow the signs to East Gresford and enjoy the drive through the ranges and via Vacy, Paterson and down to Maitland.
THE flies and Christmas beetles are out in force, the cicadas are almost deafening and the grass is brittle under foot.
My planned trip to Dungog was looking good until the day dawned as one of the first brutally hot days of summer.
But the picturesque countryside and peace and quiet makes up for the lack of coastal breezes.
The good thing about the heat is that the choice of picnic spots is yours, and there are plenty of nice sites around Dungog.
The Visitor Information Centre should be the first port of call.
It is open seven days, has a range of handy maps of the town and the Barrington Tops, and can book accommodation.
Further around in Brown Street is the town's famed James Theatre, which hosts the Dungog Film Festival.
A short stroll down the main street, Dowling, is a must to admire some of the town's other impressive historic buildings, including the J.A Rose building, built in 1910 for Sydney jewellers Angus Coote, and the Victorian home Coolalie, built in 1895.
There are a few cafes and take-away shops, a country antique shop, craft stores, and the Dungog Historical Museum, open on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
At one end of the street is the Bank Hotel, the site of a large residence built in 1876 for one of Dungog's major businessmen, John Walker.
You can get an easy pub lunch here and map out your afternoon in the ice-like, air-conditioned back dining room but locals appear to prefer discussing the heat in the front bar.
Not quite as cool, but still offering some reprieve from the heat, is a spot down near the water at Chichester Dam.
Built between 1917 and 1926, it is at the top of the Williams River catchment.
The dam can hold 21,500 megalitres of water and contributes about 35 per cent of the Hunter's potable water supply.
The pristine area has barbecues and a scenic lookout and is open until 5pm.
On the way back, it is worth taking a short detour down Salisbury Road through the area that would be inundated if the proposed Tillegra Dam goes ahead.
Anti-dam and "Dam madness" placards on poles mark the way, but the road takes you past historic Munni House, which Hunter Water proposes to relocate, and the area of Quart Pot-Munni Cemetery that holds generations of local families.
Regardless of whether you believe in the need for the dam, it is easy to understand why opponents are angry about the beautiful area ending up under 450 billion litres of water.
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