This week on Back Roads Heather Ewart meets the younger generation of Ongerup, in the southeastern wheatbelt of WA, who are taking up the challenge to help reboot the town.
After a few decades of decline, they’ve banded together to save the town’s only pub in a surprising way, and Heather arrives in town in time to help celebrate the return and reimagining of this much-loved watering hole. But she also finds a culture of goodwill that goes back a long way and involves the whole community.
Much of the work in town is funded by leaning into the thing this farming community knows best… agriculture. A plot of land donated by a local grower is sown and harvested to raise money for projects.
At the local school, kids are learning to regenerate the bush to help combat the effects of rising salt. A deep commitment to conservation led the town to build a large facility dedicated to preserving the vulnerable mallee fowl that were once so common here, they were chosen as the symbol for the local shire.
8pm Tuesday on ABC.
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