On Saturday 22 July 2028, the moon's shadow crosses Australia from the Kimberley coast to the New South Wales coast and then out over the Tasman to New Zealand's South Island. It passes directly over Sydney - the first total solar eclipse visible from the city since 1857, and the last until 2858. Maximum totality is 5 minutes 10 seconds in remote Western Australia; Sydney gets 3 minutes 48 seconds, and the longest stretch at any sizeable town centre is 4 minutes 6 seconds at Bourke in outback New South Wales. The single decision that matters is whether you trade Sydney's convenience for the outback's much better odds of a clear sky.
Totality along the path on 22 July 2028
| Place | Totality | Local time at maximum | Why you would choose it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Near the Drysdale River, WA | 5m 10s | ~10:56 AWST | The maximum - and almost no road access |
| Kununurra, WA (Kimberley) | ~2m 57s | Late morning AWST | Reliable dry-season skies, real infrastructure |
| Tennant Creek area, NT | Over 4 minutes | Around midday ACST | Desert air, very low cloud risk, long totality |
| Birdsville area, QLD | Over 4 minutes | Early afternoon AEST | Remote outback, excellent weather odds |
| Bourke, NSW | 4m 06s | Early afternoon AEST | The longest town-centre totality on the path |
| Dubbo, NSW | Around 3-4 minutes | Early afternoon AEST | Drivable from Sydney, better odds than the coast |
| Katoomba and the Blue Mountains, NSW | Around 3-4 minutes | ~14:00 AEST | Two hours from Sydney; mountain cloud is the risk |
| Sydney, NSW | 3m 48s | ~14:01 AEST | Totality over a harbour city - and the easiest logistics |
| Wollongong, NSW | Around 3 minutes | ~14:02 AEST | Coastal, inside the southern half of the path |
| Queenstown, New Zealand | ~2m 55s | Mid-afternoon NZST | Totality with the sun very low over the Remarkables |
| Dunedin, New Zealand | 2m 51s | 16:17 NZST | The strongest New Zealand base - but sun only ~8 degrees up |
What actually happens on 22 July 2028
The eclipse is a single event seen from a moving 230km-wide band. Greatest eclipse - the instant the moon's shadow is deepest - falls at 02:56:40 UTC, over Western Australia. From first landfall on the Kimberley coast to the last of the shadow leaving New Zealand takes about two hours and fifty minutes.
The track runs diagonally: the Kimberley region of Western Australia, across the Northern Territory near Tennant Creek, through south-west Queensland around Birdsville, then into New South Wales over Bourke, Dubbo, Orange, Katoomba, Penrith, Sydney and Wollongong, before crossing the Tasman Sea to the lower South Island of New Zealand.
It is a Saturday, which matters more than it sounds. A weekend eclipse over a city of five million people means the domestic travel surge into New South Wales will be far larger than it would be on a working Tuesday, and it means road traffic out of Sydney towards the inland centreline on the morning of the 22nd will be the real logistical problem to solve.
The places that are NOT in the path - check before you book
Several widely shared lists get this wrong, and the mistake is expensive. These places see a deep partial eclipse, which is a completely different and far less remarkable experience. There is no partial credit with totality: 99 per cent is not almost the same thing.
Alice Springs is not in the path. Despite sitting in the Northern Territory, the town centre is outside the band of totality. Broome is not in the path - the Western Australian track is the Kimberley, further north and east. Newcastle is not in the path: it sits just outside the northern edge and gets a deep partial. Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch all see a partial eclipse only.
If a tour or a hotel is being sold to you on the strength of the eclipse, find the centreline map first and check the specific address against it. A few kilometres decides everything.
Weather: the real trade-off between Sydney and the outback
Late July is the Australian dry season across the north and interior, and mid-winter in the south-east. The difference in cloud odds along the path is large enough to be the deciding factor in where you stand.
Sydney's Observatory Hill records a July mean of 8.7 cloudy days across its 1955-2010 series. Bourke Airport records 3.4, though on a much shorter 1999-2009 record, so treat the gap as directionally right rather than precisely measured. Beneath the track in the Great Dividing Range, average July cloudiness sits between 35 and 50 per cent - which, for a mountain range, is a testament to how dry the continent is in July. Cloudiness falls by roughly 8 per cent as the centreline descends the western slopes, then creeps back up a few per cent as it reaches the coast just north of Sydney Airport.
Read plainly: the Timor Sea, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland have the best odds on the whole path. New South Wales is materially riskier, and New Zealand riskier still. Sydney is not a bad bet - a July day there is more often clear than not - but it is the point on the path where you are most likely to be clouded out, and it is also the point where every other eclipse-chaser will be.
The practical hedge, if you are in New South Wales, is mobility: base yourself inland with a car, watch the forecast from about five days out, and be willing to drive two or three hours along the centreline on the morning itself. The band is 230km wide and runs for hundreds of kilometres across NSW, so there is a lot of road inside it.
Western Australia and the Northern Territory: the best odds on the path
The shadow makes landfall on the Kimberley coast and the point of maximum eclipse - 5 minutes 10 seconds - falls near the Drysdale River at roughly 15 degrees 36 minutes south, 126 degrees 42 minutes east. That is spectacular and almost entirely inaccessible; there is no sealed road and no infrastructure.
Kununurra is the practical Kimberley base: an airport with connections through Darwin and Perth, accommodation, and around 2 minutes 57 seconds of totality. Late July is the heart of the dry season here - days in the low thirties, essentially no rain, and the most dependable skies anywhere on the track. Purnululu National Park and the Bungle Bungle Range are close enough to build a trip around.
Further along, the Tennant Creek area in the Northern Territory sits close to the centreline with more than four minutes of totality and genuinely excellent July weather odds. This is remote country: the Stuart Highway is sealed, but accommodation is limited and will be taken very early. Camping and self-sufficient travel are the norm rather than the exception.
Outback New South Wales: Bourke is the sweet spot
Bourke has the longest totality of any real town on the path at 4 minutes 6 seconds, and its July cloud record is the best in New South Wales by a wide margin. It is around 800km from Sydney - a long day's drive, or a flight to Dubbo and a drive from there - and its accommodation stock is small enough that it will be fully committed years ahead.
Dubbo is the compromise most Australians will actually make: inside the path, a real regional centre with hotels and an airport, around five hours from Sydney by road, and materially better odds than the coast. Orange and the central west offer the same logic with vineyards attached.
If you are driving from Sydney on the day, leave the night before. A five-hour drive on a normal Saturday will not be a five-hour drive on a morning when a large part of the state is driving to the same centreline, and totality does not wait.
Sydney and the Blue Mountains: totality over a harbour city
This is the headline, and deservedly. A total solar eclipse over a city of five million people, in the early afternoon, with the harbour and the bridge in the frame, is a genuinely rare combination - the last one Sydney saw was in 1857 and the next is in 2858.
The partial phase begins around 12:40 AEST, totality is at about 14:01 and lasts 3 minutes 48 seconds, and the eclipse finishes around 15:14. In late July the sun is low - this is Sydney's winter - so you want an open view to the north and west rather than a spot hemmed in by towers. The harbour foreshore, the eastern beaches, the headlands of the Royal National Park and the open ground of Centennial Park are all plausible; so is anywhere with a clear sky and somewhere to sit for three hours.
Katoomba and the Blue Mountains are two hours west and inside the path, and the extra elevation buys you nothing on cloud - the mountains are the one place along the NSW centreline where July cloudiness runs highest. They are a good base for the trip and a risky one for the morning itself. Wollongong, to the south, is inside the band and considerably less crowded than Sydney.
New Zealand: totality with the sun eight degrees up
The shadow reaches the lower South Island in the late afternoon. Dunedin is the strongest New Zealand base with 2 minutes 51 seconds of totality and maximum eclipse at 16:17 NZST; Queenstown sees around 2 minutes 55 seconds.
The decisive detail, and the one most coverage omits: the sun is only about eight degrees above the horizon at totality - roughly the width of a fist held at arm's length. A hill suburb, a harbour ridge, a line of trees or even a modest rise will hide the event completely. In New Zealand you are not choosing a city, you are choosing a specific unobstructed view low to the north-west, and you need to stand there in advance and check.
The compensation is real. If the sky is clear, totality hangs just above the landscape with sunset colour already building around it, which is a rarer sight than a high-sun eclipse. The risk is that late-July cloud odds on the South Island are the worst on the whole track, and low sun means you are looking through far more atmosphere than someone standing in the Kimberley.
Eye safety, in one paragraph
Look at the partial phases only through certified solar viewers or eclipse glasses that meet ISO 12312-2, or by projection. Ordinary sunglasses, exposed film, smoked glass and welding glass below shade 14 are all unsafe. Cameras, binoculars and telescopes need a filter fitted in front of the lens, never behind the eyepiece. The only moment the filter comes off is during totality itself, when the sun's disc is completely covered - and it must go back on the instant the first sliver returns. Near the horizon, as in New Zealand, the sun looks dim and orange and feels safe to stare at; it is not.
Booking: what to do and when
Treat this as a multi-year booking, because the supply is fixed and the demand is not. Accommodation along the centreline in Bourke, Dubbo, Kununurra and Tennant Creek is limited to a few hundred rooms in each town, and specialist eclipse operators commit blocks of it years out. Sydney has depth, but Sydney for the weekend of 21-23 July 2028 will price like New Year's Eve.
A sensible order of operations: fix the region first, book refundable accommodation as early as you can, book flights when schedules open about a year ahead, and hire a car for the last stretch rather than committing to a fixed viewing spot. Domestic flights within Australia on 21 and 23 July 2028 will be the constraint most people hit.
One more thing worth knowing: there is a total solar eclipse on 2 August 2027, a year earlier, crossing southern Spain, North Africa and Egypt, with 6 minutes 23 seconds of totality over Luxor - the longest available from easily reached land until 2114. If 2028 in Australia does not work, 2027 is both longer and, for most of the northern hemisphere, closer.
Related guides
See also best places to visit in July 2028, best places to visit in summer 2027, our Australia travel guide, best places to visit in August 2027.
2028 eclipse FAQ
When is the 2028 total solar eclipse?
Saturday 22 July 2028. Greatest eclipse is at 02:56:40 UTC. The shadow takes about two hours and fifty minutes to cross from the Kimberley coast of Western Australia to the last of New Zealand.
Where does the 2028 eclipse pass over?
A 230km-wide band across the Kimberley in Western Australia, the Northern Territory near Tennant Creek, south-west Queensland around Birdsville, and New South Wales over Bourke, Dubbo, Orange, Katoomba, Penrith, Sydney and Wollongong - then across the Tasman Sea to the lower South Island of New Zealand, including Queenstown and Dunedin.
How long is totality in Sydney in 2028?
3 minutes 48 seconds, with maximum eclipse at about 14:01 AEST. The partial phase begins around 12:40 and the eclipse ends around 15:14. It is Sydney's first total solar eclipse since 1857 and its last until 2858.
Where is the longest totality in the 2028 eclipse?
5 minutes 10 seconds near the Drysdale River in remote Western Australia, which has no road access. The longest at any sizeable town centre is 4 minutes 6 seconds at Bourke in outback New South Wales.
Is Alice Springs in the path of the 2028 eclipse?
No. Alice Springs sees a partial eclipse only, as do Broome, Newcastle, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Auckland and Christchurch. Check any specific address against a centreline map before booking.
Is Sydney or the outback better for the 2028 eclipse?
The outback, on weather. Sydney's Observatory Hill averages 8.7 cloudy days in July against 3.4 at Bourke Airport, and cloud odds improve steadily the further inland you go. Sydney is better on logistics and on spectacle. If you stay in New South Wales, base inland with a car so you can move along the centreline on the morning.
Can I see the 2028 eclipse from New Zealand?
Yes, from the lower South Island - Dunedin gets 2 minutes 51 seconds with maximum at 16:17 NZST, and Queenstown around 2 minutes 55 seconds. The sun is only about eight degrees above the horizon, so you need a completely unobstructed low view to the north-west; hills, buildings and trees will block it entirely.
How should I safely watch the 2028 eclipse?
Use certified solar viewers meeting ISO 12312-2 for all partial phases, or project the image. Fit filters in front of camera, binocular and telescope lenses, never behind the eyepiece. Remove filters only during totality itself and replace them the moment the sun reappears.
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Written by
John Morrison is the founder and lead travel writer at Packzup. Over the past decade he has explored destinations across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania — always self-funded, never on a press trip.
