Wheatbelt boom offers new arrivals la vida buena

No one speaks Spanish in Rupanyup but Colombian immigrant Guillermo Sierra still thinks he has found his home for life.

Colombian immigrants Guillermo and Magda Sierra with their children, from left, Melissa, Phillip and Valeria in their new home town of Rupanyup. Picture: David Geraghty

No one speaks Spanish in the tiny Victorian wheatbelt town of Rupanyup but Colombian immigrant Guillermo Sierra still thinks he has found his home for life.

“You couldn’t find a better place to live … everyone is so ready to make new friends and make us feel like family in this new country,” he says.

Mr Sierra, his wife Magda and their two small children immigrated in 2010 and moved to Rupanyup two years ago, after he had graduated with degrees in agriculture and business management from Melbourne Polytechnic.

He was offered a temporary job as a crop agronomist by farmer and chickpea pioneer David Matthews.

Now Mr Sierra has three children — Melissa arrived six months ago — a full-time job, a big house with friendly neighbours and a street barbecue at Christmas. Son Phillip, 10, is happily ensconced in Year 4 at the primary school, while Magda is looking to update her qualifications so she can work as the town’s new vet.

“Melbourne was more of a shock to us than coming here; Rupanyup may be small but it is very complete,” Mr Sierra says.

“Here you know everyone, you drive down the street and they all wave and, with the crops going so well and chickpea prices being so good, my job is busy but really enjoyable.”

The Sierras are emblematic of a trend sweeping rural Australia as agriculture booms: jobs are being created and small dying towns revived by the steady influx of new arrivals.

But Rupanyup — known by locals simply as Rup — is a special town. It has strong community leaders, such as Mr Sierra’s employer Mr Matthews and former shire mayor Ray Kingston, who decided in 1998 when the town’s population dropped below 400, the bank branch closed, the main street was emptying of shops and the school had fewer than 30 children, that it was time to take matters into their own hands.

“We wanted the right to be more than just a petrol pump, more than a place where everyone went to do their shopping and banking in Horsham,” recalls Mr Matthews, who was instrumental in Rupanyup becoming the first town in Australia to have its own community bank.

“If you don’t do anything, these small towns will die or never change. You can’t afford to leave your future up to governments or other people.”

The community bank — still going strong after 18 years at the heart of Rup’s main street — was the start of bigger things.

It coincided with grain growers in the district switching from traditional wheat and barley to more profitable pulse crops such as chickpeas, lentils and fava beans, with chickpeas — harvested this season at prices of $1250 a tonne — described as the “new gold”.

Last year Rupanyup branded itself the Pulse Capital of Australia, or more cheekily as “the town with pulse”. A coffee shop and produce store has opened in the main street, the Wimmera Grain company established by Mr Matthews is exporting pulses around the world, Rupanyup is on the popular painted silo art trail, and a supermarket and shopping centre is planned.

The school has more than 50 students as younger parents with children move back onto the farms, while the go-ahead town has turned around its decline and now has more than 550 residents.

“The survival of any small community is underpinned by resilience and the ability to initiate, adapt and accept change,” says Mr Kingston. “We have a great community but we have to tell the world what we are — a town with a pulse; we want people if they are asked where is the most innovative, go-ahead, interesting small place Australia, to immediately think of Rupanyup.”