Canowindra is a small Central West town between Cowra and Orange, best known for hot-air balloons and one of Australia's strangest fossil stories. It is not a big-ticket destination, but it has enough character for a slow day if you are already travelling through wine country or the Lachlan Valley.
The essential stop is the Age of Fishes Museum, built around a remarkable Devonian fossil bed discovered by road workers in the 1950s. The town itself is pleasant rather than polished: Gaskill Street keeps a good run of early 20th-century shopfronts and verandas, and the Historical Society Museum fills in the goldfield, farming, and river-town background.
Canowindra makes most sense as a half-day detour from Orange, Cowra, or the wider Central West. Come in balloon season if you can, or come any time for fossils, a country main street, and a glass of local wine after the museums close.