Yass is a Southern Tablelands town whose old highway role has left it with more heritage than the bypass suggests. It has a preserved nineteenth-century main street, a courthouse grand enough for a bigger town, and the story of explorer Hamilton Hume just outside the centre at Cooma Cottage.
This is not a place to cross Australia for, but it passes the spare-day test if you are already in Canberra, Goulburn, or the Yass Valley. Start with Cooma Cottage, then come back into town for the railway museum and a slow walk along Comur and Rossi streets.
Yass works best when you give it a little patience. The sights are small, but together they tell a clear story of wool, roads, early exploration, and the awkward railway politics that left the main Sydney-Melbourne line outside town.