Gulargambone, NSW

We first heard of Gulargambone only a couple of weeks prior during our ‘Poetry on a Plate’ dinner and show while we were staying in Bourke.  The poet described how the Gulargambone locals had shown great resolve to prevent their town from the continual decline that results from rural downturn and young folks moving away from family farms and into the cities.  He said the town was a great example of how ‘from small things, larger things grow’.  As a result of his story we decided to turn off the highway to check the place out and maybe stay for a night!

Firstly, the town name: Gulargambone.  3 syllables pronounced, 'Gular-gam-bone'.  It is derived from the Anglicised corruption of an aboriginal word “gilagambuwan” which means ‘Place of Galahs’.  For those unfamiliar with them, a Galah is a grey, pink and white parrot – see pic below.

The 'Galah' - a medium sized grey, pink and white member of the parrot family.

 

Gulargambone is a small rural town (pop ~ 300) which was established circa 1840 on the Castlereagh River.  The surrounding area is farming and grazing land.  Like most small country towns it has experienced shrinking population and services over the years as it has become ever easier to drive into nearby larger centres.

Community Spirit!

In 2000, when it appeared that the local Post Office was to be shutdown, rather than let this happen the townsfolk banded together to form the GRTC (Gulargambone Rural Transaction Centre) and took over the running of the post office with great success!  Off of the back of this success, in 2002 the community purchased the old Majestic Theatre building and turned it into a multi-purpose volunteer run Visitor Information Centre, café, Gallery and Craft Shop.  The place is known as the Two Eight Two Eight Café (after the town’s Post Code of 2828).  This has now become the focus of the town’s social life.

The mosaic tiled entry to the 2828 Café in Gulargambone

 

Lastly, the town developed a concept whereby they would place corrugated iron sculptures of galahs throughout the town and along the approach roads into the town.  Each sculpture is about 2 metres square and positioned 2-3 metres above the ground on metal poles.  All up there are 40 galah sculptures so far.  Creatively, some involve ‘flocks’ of 2, 3 or 4 galahs positioned as road markers indicating you are 2, 3 or 4 km from the town! 

 

Corrugated Iron Galah in town

 

This pair indicating you are about 2 km from Gulargambone

 

Keep flying in this direction - You are just 3 km from Gulargambone!

WTF? – Where are The Farrows? never expected to find themselves in Gulargambone but we are glad we did!  Nice work Gulargambone, and well done to Andrew Hull, the Bush Poet in Bourke, that made us aware of the resilience and effort that people proud of their communities will go to in order to halt their decline.