Gilgandra is a country town in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia, and services the surrounding agricultural area where wheat is grown extensively together with other cereal crops, and sheep and beef cattle are raised.

[5] It is 432 km north-west of Sydney (about six hours' driving time), and is located approximately half way along the inland route from Melbourne to Brisbane.

[9] The water level in the Castlereagh River is variable and the wide, sandy riverbed is frequently dry, or is reduced to a small stream.

[10] However, there was a large permanent waterhole in the river, 100 yards (91 m) long and 12 feet (3.7 m) deep, near where the township developed, and for many years subsequently.

[14] Windmills were being advertised in the first Gilgandra newspapers in 1905, with several local people selling and installing them, including plumber Bill Hitchen, later famous for organising the 1915 Cooee march.

The Gilgandra Shire Council built a reticulated water supply in 1966, reducing reliance on private windmills.

[18] In 2016 Gilgandra had the largest single annual licensed entitlement to water from the Great Artesian Basin of any shire council in NSW, at 2,020 megalitres.

[19] Before the European squatters took up pastoral runs in the 1830s,[20] the Gilgandra region was home to three Aboriginal language groups: the Gamilaraay, Wiradjuri and Wayilwan.

[23] On 20 July 1900, an indigenous man, Jimmy Governor, murdered four members of the Mawbey family, and the children's governess, at their farming property just east of Gilgandra, in the area of Breelong.

[29] in 1919, as a peace thanksgiving, parishioners of St Ambrose Church in Bournemouth, England, grateful for the assistance England had received from the Dominions in defending the British Empire, decided to gift £1,200 to the town in the Empire with a good church and wartime service record.

[30] Gilgandra experiences a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa, Trewartha: Cfak), with hot summers and cool winters.

The Gilgandra Panthers rugby league team play in the Castlereagh Cup and have won the competition on six occasions, with the most recent being in 2018.

Gilgandra's public swimming pool is located next to the town's main park and is open across the warmer months from October to end March.

A 9-hole public golf course, with grass greens and a licensed club-house, is located on Racecourse Rd over the bridge from the main part of the town.

[35] There are two main grassed recreation grounds where many different team and club sports are played (cricket, rugby league, football, Little Athletics).

[36] Gilgandra Speedway is a popular track in the district where regular motor (car) racing events are held in many divisions.

Family history, including details of Gilgandra locals who enlisted in WW2, is on display in the Allan Wise Gallery where exhibitions are also regularly changed.

The Gilgandra Rural Museum displays and preserves an extensive collection of local farming equipment, and agricultural plant and machinery.

The Museum is situated just along from the Cooee Heritage and Visitor Information Centre on the Newell Highway at the edge of Gilgandra and can be identified by a large display windmill outside.

Particularly interesting large items include the Howard Rotary Hoe (a version of a cultivator) which was invented at Gilgandra, a Ridley Stripper, and a Ruston & Proctor Steam Traction Engine.

Like many towns in western NSW, Gilgandra has an array of churches offering services supporting their congregations.