We have relatives who live in Mudgee and relatives who live in Gulgong, and we've travelled to visit them many times over the years.  

Both towns have so much to offer to your area.  Mudgee for the wineries and bed and breakfast accommodation it offers for a lazy weekend away from Sydney.  

However, Gulgong has a different sort of magic for me.  It speaks to me of Australia's bustling, rambunctious past and the characters who once swaggered down the streets there.  

While I appreciate Mudgee as the regional centre it is, it doesn't have the magic of Gulgong.

I believe that Cudgegong House would be a brilliant regional gallery.  

When it was previously a gallery, we loved going there for a look at the latest exhibitions and a coffee.  

A gallery in Gulgong, in such an impressive building, and would provide an alternative "destination goal" (if I could phrase it that way) for those weekend visitors to the area.  

The accommodation is in Mudgee, but, with a regional art gallery in Gulgong, visitors to the area would have a reason to drive through the whole area and experience all it has to offer along the way.  

All tourism ventures would benefit from extending visitors out of Mudgee into the wider regional area.

We regularly drive from Brisbane to Murwillumbah to the Tweed Regional Art Gallery there.  

We don't find the drive arduous. In fact it's enjoyable although  longer distance than the drive from Mudgee to Gulgong.  

The Murwillumbah Art Gallery has terrific exhibitions from the Gallery of New South Wales. 

 Every year some of the best of the Archibald Exhibition go there.  I'm positive that a good gallery in Gulgong could attract the same exhibitions from the Gallery of NSW and also many more visitors to your whole area.  

Perhaps a connection with the Gallery of New South Wales could be investigated by the local council.

Also, I don't believe there is a gallery space in Mudgee to compare with what is already available at Cudgegong House. 

 It has incredible presence as a building and huge, open exhibition spaces, not to mention the in situ coffee shop.  It seems as though it could be an economic option to chose the existing gallery.

Looking forward to hearing that something exciting will be happening soon in Gulgong and which will benefit the whole Mudgee area.