After visiting the open gardens on our home town of Griffith over the weekend 14/14th October we followed up by taking the car across to Narrandera to visit their open gardens on 22nd October. We spent a lovely day visiting the six gardens and appreciating the hard work and time spent creating them. It cost $25 per person to view the gardens and this also included a Devonshire Tea in the Uniting Church hall.

I found St Anne’s Open Gardens, Temora to be held on 30th October on Facebook and as Temora is only 100km away, we thought it would be another great opportunity to take the motorhome out of its shed again.

We set off late on a Friday afternoon after minding our 2 year old grandson for the day and headed eastwards towards Temora. We wanted a campsite with water views, somewhere we could have a fire and hopefully where there was no one else. Thanks to WikiCamps we found a perfect spot. Just north of the tiny town of Ariah Park is the Broken Dam Rest Area. This rest area is right next to the Mirrool Creek and if you are careful and take the track between the rest area and the bridge it takes you to a large, relatively flat, area situated on a huge bend in the creek. Sadly the creek was dry so no water views for us!

We made camp on a good spot near the creek and Rich quickly set up a fire in an existing fire pit. Fortunately there was plenty on dry wood from the mostly pine trees in the area and we soon had a lovely fire going. It was quite cold so it was lovely to sit outside, eat our nibbles and enjoy a wine or two sitting by a lovely fire. Perfect! Not a another soul for miles, apart from the occasional car going by on Mary Gilmore Way.

The Mirrool Creek wanders across the vast western plains between the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee Rivers before it eventually joins the Lachlan River. A George Harmon of Quandary Station dammed the creek in the 1860’s to provide a more reliable source of water. You can still see the remains o the earthen wall on the bank of the creek. The dam quickly became a meeting point between Wagga Wagga and Condobolin and the east/west traffic between Narrandera and Young.

Sadly, the dam was washed away in the floods of 1869 however the intersection had become quite established by then. In about 1870 the Weldon family of Ariah Station dammed the creek one mile further downstream. Weldon also commissioned Thomas Sanderson to build a bridge which sadly failed in its first flood.

Finally in 1888 the NSW Public Works constructed a bridge at Broken Dam and it served until 1917, until carried away by flood in 1918. A new bridge was opened in 1933 and it lasted until 2005 and was replaced by the current bridge, opened in April 2005.

Quite a little settlement had grown up around the crossing with its various dams and bridges. There was a general store, post office, a hotel, and a few houses. There’s not much left of this little settlement at Broken Dam. What is left can be found if you follow the Broken Dam Walking Track. There is good signage, picnic tables and rubbish bins provided. It’s a fascinating little piece of our local history and shows the importance of water in this very dry land of ours.

The next morning we set off towards Barmedman to see if the Mineral Pool had any water in it. Last time we went through it was July and the pool is emptied each year for the winter. We arrived to find a group of enthusiastic volunteers getting the pool ready for filling. They told us it takes several weeks for the pool to fill up and recommended we come back in late November. They keep it full until around Easter each year.

The Mineral Pool is filled from an underground stream and the water is saltier that Sydney Harbour! The minerals are said to help soothe aches and pains and, although the water is cold, people come to just soak in it.

Oh well. We’ve visited twice now and haven’t seen any water. Another time!

On arrival in Temora we made a couple of stops at the Chemist and the IGA before heading to Lake Centenary where we parked up to have some lunch. Amazing to think that Richard was one of the earthmovers that built the lake over 45 years ago. It is a beautiful spot. There were a couple of ski boats and we enjoyed watching the skiers from our window.

We spent a couple of hours at the Temora Aviation Museum in the afternoon. I wasn’t particularly interested in going as I don’t really have an interest in planes (Unless it is taking me somewhere exciting) but I was surprised how good and well laid out the museum is. It kept me interested for a couple of hours. I appreciate all the work and effort put in by volunteers and in particular David Lowy who was one of the original founders of the museum.

I found it fascinating that all the planes on display are still flyable and come out each year for the annual air show. That would be a spectacular occasion. Must put it on the list!

The Temora Aviation Museum is well worth a visit, even if, like me, you are not particularly into aircraft.

Temora is home to one of the Campervan & Motorhome Club of Australia (CMCA) RV Parks. These fabulous campgrounds are for self contained vehicles and usually consist of a flat fenced area with a dump point and potable water tap. Often they also have a communal fire pit for happy hour and they are manned by volunteer custodians. As we are members it cost us the grand sum of $7 to camp the night.

Oh dear!! We ran out of gas whilst half way through cooking a roast lamb dinner and had to quickly pack up and drive into town to find some gas. Fortunately we were able to get our gas bottles filled and were quickly back at the RV park with dinner cooking again.

The next turned out to be a lovely sunny one and we spent the day visiting the six St Anne’s Open Gardens. St Anne’s is a school in Temora. To visit the open gardens you must first go to the school to purchase your entry to the gardens and are given a map to follow.

After a lovely day visiting the gardens we headed for home.