The big sell on Birchip

This Mallee town is hoping for a population explosion after launching a clever campaign displaying the virtues of their small community. Watch the video here.

Rainey Daniel, the nurse unit manager for the Birchip Campus of East Wimmera Health Service is one of those featured on a new campaign to attract people to live in the Mallee town.

A clever campaign telling the virtues of living in the tiny Mallee town of Birchip hopes to attract more people to call the centre home.

When Marian Haddrick moved to Birchip as a teacher three year ago, the local real estate agent told her she and her family could participate as much or as little as they wanted in the community.

“What he didn’t tell us was that when you move to this small town, you have to be on at least three committees as that is the Birchip way of life!” Ms Haddrick said.

Rainey Daniel, the nurse unit manager for the Birchip Campus of East Wimmera Health Service is one of those featured on a new campaign to attract people to live in the Mallee town.

A common thread soon emerged – while the business of committees was specific on some issues, more broadly there was a desire to spread the word that Birchip was a great place to work and live.

Ms Haddrick, a teacher at the Birchip P-12 school, came up with the idea of creating a video which could address some of the potential barriers, and hence Why Move to Birchip was born.

The footage includes first-person accounts from those working at the local hospital, the school and the Birchip Cropping Group, as well as covering challenges like childcare. The participants include Rainey Daniel, the nurse unit manager at the East Wimmera Health Service, who first called Birchip home 17 years ago.

Watch Why Move to Birchip below.

“We are very lucky here that we have four days a week of child care, which allows people to work,” Ms Haddrick said.

In typical country fashion, the campaign is self-produced with the video work completed by 17-year-old Birchip P-12 Year 12 student Blake Lee.

Ms Haddrick said the video addressed what could prohibit people making the move, and to demystify what it meant to make a tree change from a bigger centre.

It was road tested with locals, as well as Ms Haddrick’s marketing contacts, before being publicly released this week.

She said local employers would now use the video in their pitches to attract potential employees to apply for roles.