Lockhart is a small Riverina town southwest of Wagga Wagga, known locally as the "Verandah Town" for the shaded shopfronts along Green Street. It is not a big-ticket destination, but it clears the day-trip test because its identity is unusually clear: pastoral history, recycled-farm-machinery sculpture, wool art, and a tidy old main street that still feels lived in.
The best introduction is the Lockhart Sculpture and Heritage Trail, where farm scrap has been turned into bulls, dragons, and other larger-than-life figures. Green's Gunyah Museum adds the serious local history, including Brookong Station and the 1888 shearers' strike. The Water Tower Mural gives the town a modern landmark visible from the surrounding flat country.
Come with a car and a spare half-day. Lockhart works best as a slow stop in the Riverina: walk the main street, call into the museum, follow the sculpture trail, and leave with a sharper feel for inland New South Wales than you would get from a highway roadhouse.