Attractions & stopping points for young kids when driving between Dubbo and Canberra

This is not meant to be a definitive answer, just a collection of random points of potential interest going north to south.

Also, on local advice, it's better to take the A39 (Newell Highway) down to Parkes since this is a better road (it's the shortest route between Brisbane and Melbourne), then cross over via Eugowra to Cowra and join the Lachlan Valley Way there.

Things to see

• Peak Hill Open Cut Mine Experience -- Apparently a big hole in the ground qualifies as an attraction in these parts!
• This is beyond parody: "The Peak Hill Tourist Drive will guide you to explore treasures such as Australia’s first vertical cement wheat silos (1918) which are still operating today."
• CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope -- Has a cafe called, wait for it, "The Dish" (ba dum tssh)
• Age of Fishes Museum, Canowindra. What is this I don't even...
• Cowra Japanese Garden and POW Campsite -- Japanese strolling garden (cherry blossoms in Sep/Oct!), cafe serving Japanese/Oz modern fusion (shudder), and a memorial to the massacre of over 100 Japanese POWs in a suicidal mass breakout
• Cowra Station and Lachlan Valley Railway -- apparently no actual train operating though, and while the railway museum is notionally open, having already seen a bunch of these operations elsewhere it's likely a disheveled collection of scrapped locos in various states of disrepair...

Places to eat

• The Dish, Parkes
• Japanese Garden Cafe, Cowra
• Cowra has a large McDonalds, which is apparently noteworthy. Although there's another at Parkes on "Bogan Street", which is even better!