"TEMORA" a Temora Travel Page by tiabunna

As with so many Australian towns, Temora began in the 1800s with gold mining and the usual bushrangers. Out in western New South Wales though, the land is flat and suits wheat farming, so that became the main industry. Not that the gold mining proved unsuccessful: in pursuit of gold, outside the town the miners dug the largest open cut mine in New South Wales – it produced gold until 1996 and with gold prices rising, maybe it will re-open. A 7.3kg gold nugget was one of the ‘highlight’ finds, back in the early days.

With the gold mines and the golden wheat, Temora settled down to being quiet and prosperous. Then World War II came and, with it, the need to train large numbers of pilots. The flat land and usually fine weather of the inland wheat growing areas were ideal for basic flying training, so a military flying school was established in Temora.

Time rolled by, but through the years the old flying field remained popular for sport flying of various kinds – for the same reasons that had made it suitable for flying training. Then, in 1999, a Sydney businessman decided that Temora would be a good place to establish an aviation museum dedicated to aircraft relevant to Australia’s defence over the years – with the displays to include flying demonstrations. The world-class Temora Aviation Museum resulted and now is the main tourist attraction in the area.

We have been to Temora several times, sometimes just passing through, on other occasions to enjoy one of the museum’s ‘flying days’. The thought occurs that we really should revisit with more time to explore further afield!

Oh yes, the heading photo. It’s a De Havilland “Tiger Moth” training aircraft, made in Australia during the War and now part of the museum. This particular aircraft was actually based in Temora when the flying school was operating, and that’s exactly how it would have looked then.