En route through the rolling plains of the NSW Riverina, we discovered the tiny town of Temora, and just outside it, the Temora Airfield.

Inside these hangars lurks a surprising secret – the Temora Aviation Museum, home to an array of stunning aircraft and tales of aviation technology that illustrate not only our aviation history but the lived experience of our pilots and engineers.

This is a place that I instantly fell in love with, as a grown up, and would have been completely wowed by as a kid, given the chance to come here. But discovering it as an adult is such a treat in its own right. Though the casual museum visitor can linger for as long as they like over the simple interpretive panels and audio-visual stations, the real delights lie in store in the hangars beyond.

One giant shed holds vintage aircraft, some of which have been saved from the scrap heap, all of which have been painstakingly restored and many of which still fly today. Polished to a gleaming finish, the elegance, design and function of these craft is something to behold – and learning more about the vital role they have played throughout Australia’s wartime history is both inspiring and thought-provoking.

The airfield is also a home to one of Australia’s most fascinating and vital industries – aviation engineering, which enables the construction, design and maintenance of our aviation capability. The site houses a workshop for aviation repairs that employs multiple engineers – and it comes with a viewing platform, so that you can look out over the machines and watch the engineers as they work.

To top it all off, the airfield holds regular Flying Days, when you can see a selection of the vintage aircraft in action. The best part of this story is that the next one is coming up during National Science Week – on Saturday 19 August, you will be able to see these magnificent planes take to the skies.

So, for those fancying a drive out from Sydney, Canberra, Goulburn or inland cities and towns, this is a site well worth visiting. And you can stop off at other Science Week events along the way!

The Temora Aviation Museum’s Aircraft Showcase runs from 10am-4pm on August 19th 2017 and will feature the Supermarine Spitfire, CA-16 Wirraway, DH-82A Tiger Moth, Boeing Stearman, P-40 Kittyhawk, and Lockheed Hudson.

You can find out more about events at the Temora Aviation Museum’s website

For more information see https://aviationmuseum.com.au/events/

This guest post is part of a series from the folk travelling with the Mobile Science Week Venue throughout regional NSW and Victoria during National Science Week.

Would you like to write a guest post for National Science Week? Please contact us at Inspiring.Australia@industry.gov.au