The 2025 Week 2 Restoration Works

It’s been a busy first two weeks of the 2025 season, and with water flowing into Lake Eyre it seems to be an extra special attraction drawing visitors to the area, who call in the Farina.

Our volunteers were hard at work in the Bakery preparing the bread, pies, coffee and other bakery delights for our visitors. The new roof at the back of the bakery also had some further work and now we’re just waiting for some timber to arrive to finish off the walls.

You may remember that last week volunteer (and FRG Committee member) Gerry built some new cupboards for Patterson’s House. They are now installed and in welcome use by the volunteers  in the Bakery, to store their jackets while they’re working and to store the extra drinks for the drinks fridge. It will also provide more display space in the museum area.

And another group of happy visitors to Farina.

The Stonework team was hard at work in the Post Office this week with all the major repairs completed including walls, front step and fireplace hearth.

One of the major outdoor projects this season is the painting of NSU62, and this week work continued with further sanding filling and priming. The week started with a small breakdown when the pull cord on the generator snapped, but it was taken back to Tom’s shed and the crew quickly effected a repair.

Apart from fixing the generator pull cord, the team down at Tom’s shed were working on many and varied projects undertaking repairs and maintenance to keep Farina humming.

Out in the field our hard working Essential Services Team were everywhere around Farina keeping the firewood stocked, donkey heaters burning and of course, we can’t have the Public toilets run out of water. The first photo shows the bakery washing hanging to dry, and this job is undertaken by a volunteer who looks after the Volunteer campground, cleaning the showers and toilets and doing the bakery washing very day.

One of the things that Farina Volunteers love to do is socialise and catch up with friends who share the same passion and love for Farina. Every evening after work finishes and the Bakery closes, the volunteers get together around the campfire and the coordinators keep everyone up to date on the days activities, the plans for the next day and even a few jokes. Every Wednesday a volunteers dinner is held at Patterson’s House and is the highlight of the week.