Back Roads on ABC and ABC iview S10E8 – Presenter Heather Ewart meets the younger generation of Ongerup, in the south-eastern 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.
Heather meets Elisa Santini, who arrived in Australia 11 years ago for a two-month student exchange and never left. She’s fallen in love with the wide blue Australian sky and the animals and wildlife under it. As manager of the Yongernow centre, she oversees the mallee fowl breeding program.
Heather joins fourth generation local farmer Kinglsey Vaux to dig up native bush tucker called ‘yolk’ which they grate and make into fritters for the pub reopening party.
Eugene Eades is an Indigenous elder who gave up a professional boxing career to run a place of healing in the bush not far from Ongerup town. ‘Nowanup’ is a favourite for school camps and sharing of Indigenous knowledge and bushcraft.
Eugene is helping restore the traditional links to this ancient land and shows Heather the songline that connects this important place to the nearby Stirling Ranges National Park and beyond.
Production credit: Executive Producer, Brigid Donovan
Back Roads on ABC and ABC iview – Tuesday 8 October, 2024 at 8.00pm
TV Central ABC content HERE
Back Roads on ABC and ABC iview S10E8
