Fire nearly destroyed this town. Months later, it’s lacing up its corset and polishing its pocket watch
Had it all been for nothing?
The question hung unanswered in the car with Mark Gebhardt, as he and his wife, Deb, sped away from Dimboola on January 27.
Christiaan and Annmarie Sloane in Melbourne ahead of the Wimmera Steampunk Festival in Dimboola.Credit: Simon Schluter
Two days earlier, the South Australian couple had opened their vintage clothing and homewares store on the main street of the town of 1700, after spending six months and thousands of dollars renovating it.
But now he and the rest of the town had to evacuate, as an enormous bushfire in nearby Little Desert National Park bore down on Dimboola, with only the Wimmera River as a barrier.
“We were instructed to drive to Horsham because they set up a refuge centre,” he remembered.
“As we left Dimboola, we looked to the right… I’ve never seen flames so high, I reckon six to 10-metre flames. That was heading straight to the town. Deb said I cried all the way.
“Our biggest fear was we’ve owned a business for two days – are we going to come back to a pile of ashes? We also bought a house in December on the other side of the river, where the fire was.”
In the end, Mark, Deb and their new neighbours were lucky: even though the fire did jump the river and scorched the golf course and two farmhouses, the wind died off just before the fire reached the main street, and firefighters were up to the task of controlling it.
The Wimmera Steampunk Festival in Dimboola includes a costumed street party on Saturday, but also features plays, art exhibitions and machinery displays.
So “Dimmy” can get back to the business of reinventing itself as a town of endless curiosities.
A fabulous regeneration
Mark is not the first out-of-towner to create an interesting shopping experience in town to draw travellers off the highway.
The first were Chan and Jamie Uoy, who moved from Docklands into the town’s old bank building at the end of 2019 and turned it into an “Imaginarium”.
Mark Gebhardt is grateful to the volunteer firefighters who saved his home and livelihood.Credit: Mark Gebhardt
The following years brought an artist, a photographer, a Dutch cafe, a vintage machinery store, a printing press museum, a classic car shop and a forbidden forest-themed gift shop to town.
In 2022, Chan and Jamie began the Wimmera Steampunk Festival, which returns for its third instalment this weekend.
For the uninitiated, steampunk is a fashion and literature movement that imagines what life would be like if the technology of the late 1800s remained the dominant style today.
The festival peaks on Saturday night with a costumed street party, but it also features plays, art exhibitions, machinery displays, barefoot bowling, live music and a vintage diesel train from Seymour doing round trips between Dimboola and Horsham.
Chan Uoy, who is also the deputy mayor of the local Hindmarsh Shire, estimates up to 5000 people from around the country and the globe will descend on Dimboola this weekend.
Suffice to say, the town has come a long way since The Age named it one of Victoria’s most disadvantaged places back in 2007.
Punks on the street
Among the visitors will be Bayswater-based event promoter Annmarie Sloane – aka “DJ Lilith Nirvana Fairygothma”.
“I’m very gothic in my attire, but steampunk, vintage and rockabilly are also styles quite close to my heart,” she said.
“The steampunk festival is a very exciting opportunity to express that facet of myself in a really safe, family-friendly environment.
“It doesn’t matter what walk of life you come from – steampunk creates a medium for all sorts of different people. It gives you a chance to actually cut loose and express your true creative identity, whether it’s through fashion, literature or the mechanics behind something.”
Sloane was on tenterhooks during the weekend the fire reached the town and kept in touch with people she knew there across the weekend.
“I’m very grateful that Dimboola was spared,” she said.
A powerful weekend
Perhaps the most emotional moment of this year’s festival will come during the official opening on Saturday night, when a multicultural parade will thank the firefighters who protected the town in January.
Mark Gebhardt is deeply grateful to the volunteers who protected his house and store – in the end, when he returned four days after fleeing, all he needed to do was wipe a fine layer of ash off his business before reopening.
“We’ve got three windows in the front of the building, and they’re all filled out with steampunk gear, and we’re going to do extended trading hours. It’s just going be amazing for the town,” he said.
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