Temora is a town in the north-east of the Riverina area of New South Wales, 418 kilometres (260 mi) south-west of the state capital, Sydney.
Temora is a town in the north-eastof the Riverina area of New South Wales, 418 kilometres (260 mi) south-west of the state capital, Sydney. At the 2016 census the population of Temora was 4,693.Temora has been reported as being the friendliest town in New South Wales, following a series of mentions in the Sydney Morning Herald's Column 8, which organised a bus trip to the town for Sydney readers in 2005.Temora was named by John Donald McCansh. In September 1880 he told the Warwick Argus:
I took up the country for a sheep run in 1847, my sole companion being Valentine Lawler, who was then lessee of a station ('Nimbi') on Cunningham Creek. We could not ascertain the native name of the place as there were no blacks about, and rather than give it an English name, I called it 'Temora', the native name of a property near which I lived some years previously in another part of the Colony. I gave the station the name specially because it was aboriginal and I liked it. I did not know at that time, nor for years afterwards, that Temora was a name in Ossian’s poems.
Neither the Wiradjuri Dictionary (2010) nor the Macquarie Dictionary of Aboriginal Words (2006) lists "temora" or any words similar to it, but the Dharug language dictionary online defines "temora" as "a tree standing alone". Alternatively, in the Celtic language it is derived from a term which means "an eminence commanding a wide view."
History
Temora started as a pastoral station in 1847. Gold was discovered later in the area, and a small village established. Temora Post Office opened on 1 February 1874 and was renamed West Temora in 1880 on the same day an existing East Temora office was renamed Temora.Gold was first found in the area in 1869 but the main rush commenced in 1879, with over 20,000 people thronging to the gold diggings at Temora the district was proclaimed a gold field on 4 June 1880. Despite drought conditions, it is said that, by 1881, the Temora field was producing half the state's gold. In 1881 the highest yield from the Temora field was attained - an Impressive 35,228oz.Some large discoveries were made, including the famous Mother Shipton nugget, which weighed in at 308.35 ounces, a facsimile of which appears in the Rock and Mineral Museum section of Temora Rural Museum.
With the collapse of the gold field Temora witnessed a rapid drop in population. By the time of the first Australian Census in 1911 the population was 2,784.The Temora railway station opened in 1893.In the early twentieth century, Temora was among a number of places in New South Wales settled by people of German origin. Temora and surrounding districts such a Trungley have many Germanic road names.
In more recent times, gold mining occurred at the Paragon Gold Mine at Gidginbung, 12 km north of the town, from 1986 to 1996.
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Things to do