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.    

About our community

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.

Where we are

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.

Wycheproof  history

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.

Events 

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.