Gulargambone, NSW

 

An artist, birds and a small town's plan of survival

A young English woman, the galah and one small town’s determination to save itself from extinction is the basis of a wonderful story that shows the power of the arts to breathe hope and life back into country Australia.

By 1999, the tiny town of Gulargambone in western NSW was, like many other small dots on the map, struggling to survive. Drought, a downturn in the agricultural sector and the growth of neighbouring regional centres meant that most of the businesses in Gulargambone’s main street had shut. But it was the threatened closure of the post office that convinced the town that if they didn’t do something, Gulargambone would end up dying.

A town committee was formed and they worked to establish the first community owned post office in Australia. It was agreed that next task was to commission an artist to create some murals to decorate the growing line of empty shopfronts in Gulargambone’s main street. Through a friend of a friend, English artist Sam Newstead heard about the job, applied, was awarded the work and arrived in town in 2002.

“It was the day that the town had got together to clean out an old hall and everyone was covered in dust. They’d stopped for a sausage sizzle and when I introduced myself, someone handed me a sausage wrapped in white bread. It was one of those make or break moments because I had to explain that I was a vegetarian. The person offering it to me just stopped, turned pale and said: ‘Look, it’s our livelihood.’ It was an awful moment but knew it could only get better after that.”

The murals ended up being an outstanding success. Newstead collaborated with an Indigenous artist Lewis Burns, from nearby Dubbo, and worked with 50 of Gulargambone’s children to complete the mural, it was declared the event of the year. And in 2003, the NSW Department of Community Services named Gulargambone the ‘Can Do Community of the Year.’

With her work completed, Newstead left town. But in 2004, she got a call inviting her to return to Gulargambone. “They wanted me to do a ‘town branding’ project, which involved creating sculptures, a souvenir range and a town logo. I said I am a mural artist, I can’t do any of those things, find someone else. But they persisted and persisted til finally I said: ‘I’ll give it a go’.”

“The big problem with the town was that it was just off the highway, and cars would pass the turn off and miss us altogether. We needed to find a way of getting them to turn in. Gulargambone means place of many galahs and although many of the locals were tired of the association with galahs, I realised it was a strength that we could work with.

“So, it was a mass effort by the whole town. We had worked together to come up with the idea of using corrugated iron to create a series of 40 galahs that could guide people from the highway into town. We got a local farmer to give us a pile of corrugated iron and with a working bee, we had people stencilling, cutting, assembling ,welding them to poles and erecting them all over the place.

“It was wonderful because within moments of putting up the first sculpture on the highway, a couple with a caravan stopped to look. Some of our guys ran over and said ‘Welcome to Gulargambone’ and that was really the beginning of it,” Newstead said.

A major part of the town’s face-lift had been the conversion of the town’s old picture theatre into a modern cinema, a visitor’s centre, gallery, library, function centre and café christened 2828, after the town’s postcode. And with advice from others, Newstead helped create a range of souvenirs. She also created the town logo, using the galah theme and incorporating Aboriginal design-work.

Since 2003, Gulargambone has won 14 major awards. In 2005, it was named NSW Tidy Town and in 2008, 2828 received the NSW Tourism Gold Award for “a business that has demonstrated outstanding achievement and success.” 2828 is now also a registered training venue for young people studying hospitality at the local school.

The town’s population is growing. Sam Newstead has now moved to the town permanently and is the area’s regional arts development officer. “The story of Gulargambone just shows the role the arts can play in saving small towns. It’s an outstanding example of a rural community that was determined to survive and saw a way of doing it,” says Elizabeth Rogers, the Chief Executive Officer of Regional Arts NSW.