Wycheproof
Train headed down the main street of Broadway
Is a small regional locality in the centre of the Shire of Buloke, in north western Victoria, Australia. As of the 2006 census, it had a population of 686. The name, Wycheproof, originates from an aboriginal word meaning ‘grass on a hill’, referring to Mount Wycheproof just off the Calder Highway, which is the smallest registered mountain in the world, standing at 148 metres (486 ft) above sea level or 43 metres (141 ft) above the surrounding plains. The economy of Wycheproof is driven mainly by wheat.
The railway from Bendigo and Korong Vale reached the area in 1883 and was later extended north. The township was established beside the railway and the Post Office opened on April 1, 1884 replacing earlier offices from 1876 serving the rural area named Wycheproof (renamed to Moffat) and Mount Wycheproof. The last regular passenger service though the local railway station was from Bendigo to Sea Lake on 7 May 1977 and was operated by a DERM. The town is unusual in that even today the railway line runs in the centre of the main street.
In an attempt to attract new residents, the local community has developed a project to offer otherwise vacant farmhouses for rent at AU$1 per week. Expressions of interest in the scheme have been heard from Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, and Ireland as well as most parts of Australia. The project was inspired by a similar program at Cumnock, New South Wales.
Wycheproof has a proud sporting history. With its neighbouring township Narraport Wycheproof has an Australian rules football team (Wycheproof-Narraport) competing in the North Central Football League. Many AFL stars are from Wycheproof including Corey Jones, Mervyn Keane, Greg Kennedy and Chris Pym.
Wycheproof has a horse racing club, the Mt Wycheproof & District Racing Club, whose one meeting a year is the Mount Wycheproof Cup meeting held on Victoria Derby day in late October or early November.
Golfers play at the course of the Wycheproof Golf Club on the Calder Highway.
A CONCISE HISTORY OF WYCHEPROOF
Remains of the railway station
There was limited aboriginal presence in this area, as there was not enough permanent water, and tribal presence was only in good rainfall years, there is quite a lot of evidence to support this.The only area where there was activity was out along the Avoca and along Tyrell Creek. The middens along the Avoca were very small say compared to along the Murray where they are 5 or 6 feet high.
The squatters were in the area by the 1840s and Wycheproof was a favoured site as it was very well watered, the Avoca River, Lalbert Channel and Cooroopajerrup Creek. The run off the mount filled 3 dams, 2 of which are still there. Robert Moffat took up the lease in 1867. Moffat and his manager Edmund Margetts was a truly amazing man, and a magnificent citizen to this town and area. The squatters were quite highly thought of in the area.
In 1883 the railways came to this town- this was the best day at Wycheproof as it ended isolation. You could go to Melbourne in a day where as it normally took 2 days to get to Bridgewater with a load of 12 bags of wheat.
The land here was opened up for closer settlement by the McPherson Land Act, and first selectors the Dempseys and Dobbins selected land in March 1873. Then the flood came, all the land was taken up by the late 1870s but the barrier was the Mallee lands to the north of here. This land was regarded useless by the selectors, until they were able to find a way to clear it. When the Mallee roller was invented the once useless land was regarded as good productive land.
By our standards, the selectors did it tough, but they knew no different and so treated the conditions as normal, this has always gone on. My contention is that the Governments treated them badly. They had to pay £1 an acre for free land, they had to fence it, build sheds and houses, and cultivate it by sowing crops. For this land the selectors had to pay cash, 4 payments every year over 10 years; this burden was too much and later was extended over 20 years. Just think of all the land in Victoria that was selected and how much money went into the coffers of the Victorian Treasury. All the expansion in Victoria during the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s was paid for mostly on the back of selectors.
1890s depression
The 1890s spilled out the small selectors and during this period with poor years there was an exodus from the area. Many people went to higher rainfall areas in Queensland and NSW, to the WA Goldfields where they stayed on and selected ground there. Land was bought as people consolidated their holdings and battled through. The Wyche station went from 1200 acres in 1874 to 22000 acres until it was broken up after WWI.
The cottage hospital was built in the early 1890s, 1892 I think, but they could not get enough money to open. When finances were raised it ran it until the late 1890s.
The new century arrived and the 1902 drought was the ‘straw the broke the camels back’, this drought was the worst time for the area but once it broke things did improve.
Wycheproof Township
The first commercial building in the town was the Mount Wycheproof Hotel built by James O’Connor in 1874. This is now the site of the Mt Wycheproof Motel. The second building in built in the town was in 1876 when Tippings General Store was built (where Brocky Dixon lives) and the third was also in 1876 when Robertsons Blacksmiths (Johns Family) was built on the site where Margaret Currie now lives.
The town has ebbed and flowed but its still here. James O’Connor who built the first Hotel – the Mount Wycheproof – was another wonderful citizen and would go very close to being the towns founder. I cannot speak highly enough of his achievement to this town.
1914–1918
This time it is a terrible time as reported in the local papers. WWI started in a blaze of patriotism and duty to the Empire. The first Wycheproof person killed was George McPherson who died on Anzac day 1915 at the Anzac landing ( many years later I found out he is a distant relation to me). By 1917-1918 the news in the local papers is dreadful, hardly a week went by when there was not somebody killed from here, or a relation of somebody. In total 60,000 Australians died from a population of 4 million, more than a generation lost. It must have set this town back in a way we cannot imagine and the other tragedies, with men returning wounded, “shell shocked”, or other trauma. Terrible.
1920 boom years
I was told of a farmer who, after a good year, first built a house, second bought a car, paid his taxes and lived, put that in modern day terms. The downside was high land prices which always come in a boom followed by a bust.
1930s
As my father told me there was nothing good about the 1930s, they must have been terrible times. No work, no hope. Groups of people walking to try and find work to support families – got together in groups to pool resources (sustenance work in this town stone gutters). People who wanted to work and couldn’t. When the Mutual Store went broke it had debts of £80,000. The Debt Adjustment Act was a failure, designed to help struggling farmers but was abused. The farmers started to organise just before WWII establishing the Wheat Board and the Grain Elevators Board, to break the power of the multi -nationals.
War
Compounding the he worst effects of the war on our local community during this 1939-1945 period were 4 droughts in 7 years. WWII, this was total war, people leaving to work, join services, called up for serviced and lack of man power in rural areas. At the surrender at Singapore a lot of locals were captured and a lot never returned. The desert and islands, desperate times.
Late 1940s and 1950s
Following WWII the first good year was 1948 after the droughts of the early 1940s wheat reached $1.40 a bushel and the boom years started. Most farmers took until the wool boom during the Korean War to pay off their debts from the depression and drought. Wool in 1951-52 reached a £1 ($2) for a pound of wool. These were prosperous times.
Wycheproof Community
Wycheproof VISION meets on the third Tuesday of the month, at 7pm at the Wycheproof VISION BIG Shop on Broadway. All residents are welcome and encouraged to attend.
Wycheproof is a small, vibrant rural community of 800 people. In 1995 the community established its town forum Wycheproof 2000 Inc, now called Wycheproof VISION Inc., to coordinate activities including: promotion of tourism and local business, conservation of its unique environment, and to support small volunteer groups. During the past two years the town forum has achieved projects including: rehabilitation of the Mt Wycheproof Reserve to conserve native vegetation, development of tourism information, developed and maintains a community website, launched a Community Plan under the CBI Initiative, hosted the Steaming Up Broadway Festival, established Music on the Mount, and in 2009 established the Dollar Rent-a-farmhouse Project as a way to sustain and increase population.
For 140 years the community of Wycheproof has used humour, innovation and an innate tenacity as its means of survival. And for the past 10 years the volunteers brought together by Wycheproof VISION Inc .have sought increasingly innovative ways to enhance the social fabric, the local environment, and economic sustainability of our small community. Bringing community groups together to advocate for what is special about life in Wycheproof has been the ultimate aim in the face of prolonged drought and exodus of population from the town. This small band of volunteers has invigorated the community through the development of new festivals and events, and has sustained traditional enterprises and events that attract visitors to the town.
Situated at the gateway to the Murray Mallee region, Wycheproof is a small rural community in the Buloke Shire.
Wycheproof is located on the Calder Highway 350km from Melbourne in the south and Mildura in the north. Broadacre grain production is the main primary industry. While the area has been drought declared for 10 years, Wycheproof VISION Inc. has led many projects to strengthen the community, and to stave off the emotional and psychological effects of drought. While in the main, our population of 800 people has a high percentage of over 55 year olds, many young people have returned to town, or chosen our great rural lifestyle to raise families and there are now more than 30 children aged under five years.
An oasis on the Calder
Wycheproof is an oasis, enhanced by the town’s park and rest stop that is maintained by Buloke Shire and volunteers. This park named Centenary Park was first developed in 1968 when two large dams were filled and reclaimed as a community park. It has also come to house the RSL’s WWI and WWII memorials and is a meeting place for many residents particularly mums with small children and a venue for community events.
The town boasts a shady caravan park and camping ground that attracts visitors to stay the night or to make Wycheproof a base to explore the district. Wycheproof VISION Inc. has established a sub-committee to oversee further development of the caravan park and has been successful in lobbying for increased council funding, through grants, to upgrade this town asset. A volunteer committee works hard to ensure the council-run swimming pool, a great recreation asset, is available each summer.
Wycheproof boasted a variety of shops and competition in business, in its heyday, today its business community strives to maintain vital services to the town and community. Wycheproof is ideally situated for business development with shop fronts availalbe. Businesses, particularly businesses that have a regional focus are encouraged and are well supported by transport links and the central situation of the town.
The public hospital and nursing home is a campus of the East Wimmera Health Service providing essential services and is a major employer in the town. An auxiliary, of volunteers Friends of East Wimmera group, raises funds to support the the hospital.
the town was established in 1878 and the Wycheoproof Historical Society is a very active group preserving local and district history at the Court House Museum.
Wycheproof is unique with the railway line running through its main street, Broadway. It is home to the smallest registered mountain, Mt Wycheproof. Wycheproof is famous for its legendary race the King of the Mountain, held for 11 years from 1978. This was a footrace to the summit of the mount with competitors carrying a bag of wheat weighing around 70kg and recognised the historic contribution and skill of grain lumpers who built the stacks ready for the grain to be transported by bullock dray and later onto trains. The route was over a kilometre and up a 1-in-6 gradient that made for a very physically demanding and competitive race.
Event
The town is also renown for its annual thoroughbred race meeting. Organised by the volunteers of the Mt Wycheproof Racing Club, Derby Day in the Country – Mt Wycheproof Cup is held the Saturday before Melbourne Cup. This race meeting attracts around 2500 racegoers and attendance grows each year.
Wycheproof is home to the largest sheep store in regional Victoria and sheep sale days are busy days in the town. The Wycheproof Sale Yards attract buyers and sellers from across Victoria and southern NSW. In the past 12 months 113,000 head of sheep were sold through the Wycheproof sheep store.
Wycheproof VISION Inc – town forum
The depth and breadth of work since 1995 of the Wycheproof VISION Inc volunteers to sustain the community and to develop a critical mass to get things done, is quite astounding. The group’s main achievement has been to bring together people who not only have ideas but who are ready to make those ideas happen. The forum has a youth representative as an office bearer position and boasts a great skill mix and age mix. And because of these skills it is able to support the town and smaller groups.
The forum is funded through an annual council grant and its activities by specific project grants. The forum sources some funding from direct community support for specific events and activities, and donations including in-kind work and catering from the community.
While Wycheproof VISION meetings bring together representatives of the many volunteer groups in town and assists them to liaise with Buloke Council, it also supports groups in a practical way, for example the Wycheproof Agricultural and Pastoral Society, which doesn’t have the capacity to have a web presence or the ability to have a publicity officer position, is supported, with Wycheproof VISION volunteers providing these skills. All groups are assisted through the town newsletter Wycheproof On Track produced by the forum.
The forum supports the work of the Wycheproof Community Resource Centre , which over the past 10 years has developed from a neighbourhood house open half a day a week to a full-time centre with four staff providing a secretariat service to many community groups, careers based training opportunities and leisure classes including physical recreation classes for all age groups – fostering a healthy mind and body. It also provides a hub for the local ANZ Bank branch, CentreLink and Australian Taxation Office services and provides training rooms and office space for outside providers.
In the past two years the forum has been involved in several major projects and other smaller projects that enhance the fabric of rural community life. Wycheproof VISION Inc subcommittees include:
- Wycheproof Chamber of Commerce
- Friends of Mt Wycheproof
- Wycheproof Pool Committee
- Wycheproof Caravan Park Committee
- Newsletter Committee
- Website Committee
- Environment and Sustainable Energy Committee
- Wycheproof Festival Working Group
- Wycheproof Rent-a-farmhouse Working Group
Wycheproof VISION volunteers also represent the town on shire and regional forums and regional networking initiatives.
Community Planning
Due to the behind-the-scenes and front-of-house work by town foum volunteers, Wycheproof was the first town in Buloke Shire to develop and launch a Community Plan under the State Government’s Community Building Initiative scheme. Wycheproof’s Community Opportunity Workshop (COW) was organised and driven by town forum volunteers with the Buloke Shire, and, because it was grass-roots driven, around 15% of the town’s population attended – representative of a range of age groups and occupations. The COW was held at the end of November 2007 and assisted community members to identify what was great about the town and community, what was valued, what could be improved upon, and what new ventures could be developed. The workshop was cathartic, held at a time of year when farmers were facing yet another disastrous harvest season. The workshop was also energising with the community developing ideas and a vision for the town that could be implemented over the long term.
Since the launch of the Community Plan in July 2008, several great projects are underway. These include the development of a festival, renewed participation and reactivation of a local tourism think-tank, an environment and sustainable energy group, reinvigoration of the local agricultural show, and projects to conserve habitat and native vegetation on Mt Wycheproof,. The town forum works closely with ordanisations such as: the Wycheproof Historical Society, in developing books and brochures about our past, the Lions Club of Wycheproof to enhance the amenity of Centenary Park, with local youth to find innovative ways to support youth endeavours including hosting a youth community opportunity workshop (CALF), and a project to encourage new residents to the district.
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