A commercial and industrial centre for the surrounding agricultural and pastoral area. It is best known for the iconic CSIRO radio telessope dish outside of town.

Where is it?: Central West. Parkes in 364 km west of Sydney on the Newell Highway. Parkes is a major marshalling centre for the Indian Pacific Railway connecting the east and west coasts of Australia.

Events
In the second week of January every year, Parkes comes alive to the sounds of hip-swivelling Elvis Presley Impersonators and Tribute Artists during the Parkes Elvis Festival. The 5 day Festival Program features a dazzling array of more than 140 individual events celebrating the life and misic of the king of rock'n'roll, Elvis Presley. Countrylink runs a special Elvis Express to bring fans to and from Parkes diuring the festival. passengers are entertained by a host of Elvis impersonators.


A large collection of Elvis Presley memorabilia collection is on permanent display at The King's Castle. The collection is owned by Greg Page, renowned for his previous role in the yellow skivvy with hit children's group The Wiggles. Greg has been collecting for many years and selected Parkes, the Elvis Capital of Australia, as the perfect location to share his incredible display with the public.

The King's Castle collection and three other collections - the Parkes Museum, Parkes Motor Museum and the Antique Machinery Museum - have a joint entry ticket.

Things to see and do
Parkes is named after Sir Henry Parkes, who first visited the town while Premier of New South Wales in 1863. To honour the visit, the town changed its name to his, called its main street after his wife, Clarinda, and other steets after his sons. The town is now home to the privately library of Sir Henry Parkes, which comprises of some 1,000 books.

An obelisk is erected over the 274 metre gold mine shaft of the Phoenix gold mine. Bushmans Hill has many relics of thew gold mining days and a memorial to the few who have lost their lives at the North Parkes mine. The Bushmands Hill Mine was among the richest in NSW. Pioneer Park Antique Machinery Museum houses a collection of tractors, harvesters and many other items from Parkes' agricultural past. Balmoral House was built by William Hazelhurst, who worked the rich Phoenix mine, only to die almost penniless.

Lookouts: The view from Memorial Hill stretches over 50 km. The hill is the site of a Shrine of Remembrance which is a 35 metre column.