Kaneira to Culgoa - A New Mallee Ghost

Kaneira to Culgoa - A New Mallee Ghost

Culgoa Public Hall

Blink and you'll miss Culgoa, a town on the Calder Highway, 50 minutes from Swan Hill and two hours from Bendigo in an area of North-Western Victoria called The Mallee. 

This is deep wheat growing country, and responsible for a large proportion of Victoria's cereal crop. Culgoa, formerly known as Kaneira was settled in the late 19th century and thrived - for a while - as a centre for wheat and sheep farmers.

But for the last fifty or so years, most towns on The Mallee have been in a steep decline. Culgoa is pretty typical. The names of towns surrounding Culgoa are whimsical - from Quambatook, to Wycheproof to the elegantly named Tittybong -  all are pale shadows of their former selves.

Culgoa water tower, on Calder Hwy - also - graffiti showing the last Grand Final of the Berriwillock-Culgoa Tigers in 1995

Its a story familiar to many rural communities around Australia - and the world. Farms got bigger, become more automated and less labour intensive. And the children of farmers didn't want to stay and be farmers.

The brand on the side of one of the utes, still almost new looking despite the rust on the car body.

A field of old cars, looking like their owners parked and just walked away forty years ago.

Banks, pharmacies and supermarkets close and the momentum towards dissolution builds pace. The critical mass of people needed to sustain a community no longer exists and relies on the increasingly older and infirm. Football teams, volunteer organisations like the CFA, SES and churches are merged or disappear.

The people I spoke to were mostly in their 70s and 80s - and their children and grand-children lived in Melbourne, Bendigo, Ballarat or Swan Hill. They went where the work and services are.

The end result is a town in terminal decline. Many people just walk away from their houses, or die and their houses are abandoned. Something many Australians are used to reading about in the US for example post GFC - but not Victoria.

Many older residents just could not afford to maintain their homes. They would cost more to repair or demolish - so they're just left to fall apart on their own.

A lot of the derelict houses are also open to the elements. And again, still full of furniture and belongings. 

Many of the houses I saw in Culgoa were full of the furniture and even food of their last owners. Their verandahs sagging, the roofs buckling as time and the harsh elements of The Mallee took hold.

According to neighbours, up until thirty years ago this house was one of the best homes in Culgoa. The most recent owner walked away about ten years ago when she could no longer maintain it.

Front of the house.

The ceiling and plaster board have fallen in on the rear kitchen of the house - where cans, food tins and spices still sit awaiting a last meal.

The Sea Lake-Nandaly Tigers (formerly the Berriwillock-Culgoa Tigers) are playing their last match at the Culgoa Football Ground this season. Its hard to retain ownership when the team doesn't even have your town's name in their title any more.

Site of the former Culgoa Primary, which was demolished in 2008.

With the average age of residents in Culgoa and surrounds being somewhere in the vicinity of sixty - there are very few children in the town.

The primary school was demolished in 2008 - but the foundations, playing fields and even the tanbark and ghostly equipment footings of the playground remain. The school sign remains up, pointing to a school long gone. 

Culgoa Sacred Heart Church

The beautiful Culgoa Sacred Heart Catholic Church, which the parishioners graciously allowed me to photograph is another case in point. From a height of over 300 regular church goers - only six now regularly attend church. The priest attends during his rounds once a month. 

The locals fear it will soon end up like many other local churches - deconsecrated and sold. Or scheduled to be demolished, like the local Uniting Church which was damaged in floods. 

Interior of the Culgoa Sacred Heart Catholic Church. 

The two angels on either side of the altar were donated by one family (a farming family who still attend) who lost a sister and brother in the 1940s and 1950s. They can no longer stand on their plinths as the floor is too uneven - again owing to flood and neglect. But the church remains beautiful both inside and out. 

It was a bitterly cold Mallee winter morning when the six stalwarts attended - testament to their faith.

The former Culgoa shop and Post Office. Currently inhabited - if the lights on at night were any indication! 

Side view of the former Calgoa Post Office - as you can see the stumps have gone and gives new definition to the term 'rambling'!

There is room for optimism though. The inhabitants of Culgoa took over the local store when it closed, and now operate it collectively. Together, they supply the town and visitors with home cooked meals and special treats, as well as running the newsagency.

The Kaneira Hotel in Culgoa - one of the few local institutions struggling gainfully on. In part due to the closure of many other hotels in the surrounding towns.

The Kaneira Hotel benefits from this too. Many of the hotels in other towns in the area have closed - some even demolished. So people naturally congregate where there is food and company. This helps make the Kaneira Hotel a going concern. It is by no means a 'gastro-pub' but the food is pretty standard pub fare and cheap - and the beer is cold.

There remains a deep sense of ownership of the town by the people I spoke too. The decline of Calgoa has been so gradual over an extended period of time there doesn't appear to be a sense of crisis - just regret and acceptance.

Whither Country Victoria?
Some towns in the 'Vale of Melbourne' have managed to reimagine themselves as tourist destinations - bed and breakfasts, antiques, cafes and restaurants - or those seeking a sea/tree change. This has had consequences for those people living in those towns. Formerly sleepy towns like Castlemaine, Woodend and Daylesford are all tourist meccas - where the house prices have been driven up by Melburnians seeking weekenders or even commuting distance.

Regional centres like Bendigo and Ballarat are thriving with new housing estates servicing over-flow from Melbourne. But the contrast between those towns and places like Culgoa is stark. Houses in Culgoa - when they can find a buyer for those not too derelict - can go for less than $100,000. But there are no jobs, and even less to do - unless you're willing to travel to Swan Hill or Bendigo.

Children's toys litter the front yard of this house, where the owners defaulted on their mortgage and didn't return.

Despite the low cost of houses, rural living is expensive. There's little or no public transport, the trains that have been promised by successive governments never came back, the buses unreliable. Internet, reticulated water, gas and sewerage are luxuries unavailable to many rural Victorians like those in Culgoa.

And The Mallee bakes in summer. Operating without air-conditioning is intolerable - and leads to excessive electricity bills. Solar power is a must - but again, expensive to initially install.

Towns like Culgoa sit in ultra-safe National Party seats. As a junior partner in Coalition Governments, very little attention is given to their needs and wants. With the two party system being what it is, there is nothing in either major party's interests to spend more money on rural Victoria.

The over-riding description of the treatment of Culgoa by an level of government is neglect.

Legacy
Europeans have lived, farmed and died in the dry, hot country of The Mallee for less than 150 years. It is a brief period compared to the Aboriginal custodianship of the land, who lived in the area for tens of thousands of years.

Chimney belonging to one of the first houses in then Kaneira, a mud brick homestead which burnt down in the 1950s. Will other houses in Culgoa even leave this much behind?

Smashed pottery around the chimney, which lay in the bedrooms at the rear of the house. Legend is the owner of the house put a whole log into the fireplace where it caught on the newspaper wallpaper.

This lone chimney sits evocatively at the back of a row of houses - some inhabited, some derelict. It belonged to one of the first houses built in then Kaneira, which burnt down in the 1950s. Will there be as much left of Culgoa in another 50 years?

The pathos and pain associated with one small town's passing is experienced by all those who have a connection to the place. Its one felt by people throughout the world, that have been bypassed physically, economically or culturally.

Like all places where people used to live - those with memories of the place will pass on as well. 

And we'll stare at chimneys of those long gone houses and wonder.