Emergency water contingencies were only weeks away from being enacted for downstream users of the Lachlan.

Politicians were calling for more dams.

And so the then Cowra Guardian news team of Peter Clarke and Janine Finlayson took to the skies in a helicopter alongside Former Deputy Premier Ian Armstrong to see the countryside first hand.

Here are the photos from that special flight – of Wyangala and its main area, then going upstream past its junction with the Lachlan River, following the Abercrombie River up into the Wyangala backwaters country to see a once mighty dam reduced to bare rocks and puddles.

It’s eerily beautiful, even though heartbreaking, to see the river course stripped away to its bones.  

You’ll also find shots of the wider countryside as we flew to and from the dam – even making a special visit to the Belubula to investigate The Needles.

We hope you enjoy our special Blast from the Past journey as much as we did.