After marvelling at the natural creation of Sawn Rocks and trying to interfere with signals from space at the CSIRO Australia Telescope near Narrabri, you can pop into the town of Moree for a dip into some Hot Springs if you are feeling a bit sore from driving for a few hundred kilometres. Moree is another stop off the Newell Highway in central New South Wales, Australia.
The original Moree Hot Mineral Baths were created by accident in the late 1890s. While a few farmers were searching for a reliable source of irrigation water for the local crops, a groundwater bore was sunk into the Great Artesian Basin, which is a massive reservoir of underground water that lies underneath a large chunk of Australia.
And being reminiscent of the Beverly Hillbillies, this bore spurted out hot mineral waters which are heated naturally underground at a warm-ish temperature of 41 degrees Celsius (or 105.8 degrees Farenheit).
Anyway, the Moree Aquatic Centre, which has undergone a multi-million dollar development, are an extremely popular tourist attraction in it’s own right.
Meaning that the baths are visited by 300,000 people annually, who travel to Moree for this reason alone to experience the therapeutic benefits of the hot water.
Now that’s a lot of people making a long pilgrimage to a hot swimming pool!
Moree Hot Springs Pics!
Ironically, the vast majority of the people there were well over the 50 year old mark, and that’s probably because the hot water does those stiff joints a lot of good. But to be fair, I was there during most people’s working hours!
There are two main pools of heated water – one that is 38 degrees, and one that is close to 40 degrees Celsius.
You wouldn’t think it, but that extra couple of degrees difference makes the ‘hot’ pool feels like you’ve been placed in a pot of boiling water waiting to be cooked up by a few cannibals. The 38 degree pool feels like you’ve dipped into Antarctic waters after sitting in the 40 degree one for a while.
So there you go. If you feel like warming up a lot, check out the Moree Aquatic Centre.
And for the record, you do feel pretty good after spending a session in there. Only problem is that the pool isn’t exactly popping in distance from where I live!
Anyway, see more at The great Australian artesian basin and the source of its water