In the Yarriambiack Shire, in Victoria’s rural north-west, virtually all of the towns are shrinking.

Brim is a town where history is literally carved into the streets.

Brick memorials honouring clubs, organisations and locals lost to time are set into the footpath where feet once fell far more frequently. 

Some of the last remaining signs of a bygone era.

The primary school.

Opened in 1890 and now demolished, the site is marked by a sign standing among adolescent gum trees growing in the deserted schoolyard.

A brick inscribed with Brim Primary School The school in Brim first opened in the 19th century and survived until the new millennium.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)Brim Primary School sign The primary school building has since been demolished.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)

The football club.

Established two years after the school, the club merged with neighbouring Warracknabeal in 2001.

Brim Football Club building The Brim Football Club merged with a neighbouring town more than two decades ago.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)Bricks in a sidewalk The streets in Brim are paved with memorials of clubs, churches and institutions long since closed.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)

The oval and netball courts in Brim are still used every now and then, but there’s little life left nowadays.

Churches. An infant welfare centre. Sporting clubs. Families. The lifeblood of a town now consigned to etchings in brick.

From 2006 to 2021 Brim lost a quarter of its population, with about 180 people now living in the township.

Football specatators watch a game on a foggy day Families and friends will turn up to the games whether it rains, hails or shines.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)

It’s a story repeated across the 15 towns dotted about the Yarriambiack Shire, about 350 kilometres from Melbourne in Victoria’s rural north-west.

Virtually all of the towns are shrinking.

Fewer farms, fewer people

Mick Gunn has seen the contraction firsthand.

He spent much of his life in Brim, where he was a stalwart of the Brim Football club both as a player and later president.

Mick Gunn Longtime Brim resident Mick Gunn has seen the population shrink firsthand.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)

But as the town shrunk, the club disappeared.

Brim was one of at least 16 town-based teams that played footy in Yarriambiack over the years. Today, there are just four.

“That’s a difficult part,” Mick says. “I played all my senior football up there, but as the years went by farms got bigger, less people around the club, and the club struggled for numbers.”

“Brim was drawing out of [the nearby town of] Warracknabeal, which had the effect on Warracknabeal as well, with a shortage of players.

A sign reading "Brim Eagles" Brim’s football club was forced to merge due to a lack of players.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)An old photograph of a football team from 1929 Residents have been playing football in the region for well over 100 years.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)

“It became an untenable situation 20 years ago and both clubs got together and decided … they would be better off merging.”

When the Brim Eagles amalgamated with the Warracknabeal Lions in 2001, Mick settled into a new role at the merged club: collecting entry fees at the gates of Anzac Park — the Warrack Eagles’ home ground, about 20km south of Brim.

Mick Gunn Mich Gunn has been involved with local football clubs all his life.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)Hands holding a 20 dollar note Mick Gunn now collects the entry fees for football matches.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)A till full of cash The tills were full of cash as residents came from all over for the match.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)

“Football or netball in country towns is everything,” Mick says, “You get together, not just to watch sport, but to have a yarn and talk about, you know, the weather, how the crops are looking and all that sort of thing.”

Sarah Spicer, the Eagles’ A-grade netball coach and a “three-in-one” farmer, office manager and stay-at-home-mum, agrees.

She’s been involved in netball since she was a kid and knows exactly how important it is to the community.

Sarah Spicer Sally Spicer is the coach of the Warrack Eagles’ A Grade netball team.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)A netball coach talking to her players Sarah Spicer takes on coaching duties in addition to her roles as a farmer, office manager and mum.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

“We’re surrounded by small communities and we’re all battling for numbers,” she says.

“You can’t deny that numbers are going a downward trend … and I guess our opportunities can be limited being in the country.”

Victoria’s fastest shrinking 

Yarriambiack has a rhythm to it.

Even the name — pronounced Yar-EE-am-BEE-ack — dips and dives with a cadence of its own.

Farmland Yarriambiack is farming country.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

Massive road trains have impressed a rhythm into the local roads too, with the tarmac’s tell-tale rise and fall referred to as the “Wimmera Wave”.

Powerlines over a canola field Fields of canola stretch across the landscape in Yarriambiack, home to Victoria’s fastest declining population.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

The region itself is a slab of land just a bit smaller than metropolitan Melbourne.

Satellite photo of area around Brim The region is a patchwork of agriculture from the skies.(Airbus)

It’s farming country. From high above, it’s a patchwork of agriculture, with the land divvied up into squares and rectangles of mostly grains and sheep farms.

And since 2001, this land has been home to Victoria’s fastest declining population.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics slices the country up into 2,473 “Statistical Areas Level 2” — or SA2s. These are generally the smallest areas used for comparing regions.

Population estimates show the Yarriambiack SA2 was home to 8,114 people in 2001.

The facade of a house Yarriambiack towns have seen an exodus of residents in the past two decades.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)The facade of a house Nearly a quarter of residents in the area have left since 2001.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

Since then, that population has fallen to 6,283, at a loss of 22.57 per cent of its people.

It has been a relentless contraction, with the population dropping every single year — by as little as 0.14 per cent in 2018, and as much as 1.97 per cent in 2021.

The facade of a house The total population has dropped every year for decades.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)The facade of a house The largest town in the region, Warracknabeal, has seen its population drop by 10 per cent in the period.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

The largest town in the region is Warracknabeal, where some locals reckon the population stayed steady at 3,300 for years on end back in the 80s or 90s.

Warracknabeal CBD The town centre of Warracknabeal.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

Others argue this is a misconception — claiming it stuck on 3,300 only because nobody remembered to change the population counter under the ‘Welcome to Warracknabeal’ sign for a few years.

Census statistics show Warracknabeal’s population fell 10.13 per cent between the 2001 and 2021 counts — from 2,478 to 2,227.

Welcome sign in Warracknabeal The town of Warracknabeal is the birthplace of musician Nick Cave.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

But Yarriambiack is not an outlier. Across the country, population is declining in regional and remote towns, University of Queensland associate professor of human geography Elin Charles-Edwards says.

Professor Charles-Edwin says this is due to both a natural decrease — “where deaths outnumber births” — and net migration losses — “more people leaving than arriving”.

A person in a motorised scooter Population decline can be an irreversible process for some towns.(ABC News: Daniellie Bonica)”Ultimately the combination of these demographic processes will lead to terminal population decline,” Prof Charles-Edwin said.

“In the absence of large-scale structural changes (such as fast rail) or major industry or government investment, the process of decline is almost impossible to stop,” she said.

“Many Australian towns have been lost since federation, and this is likely to continue.”

‘If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it’

Andrew Ward is the fifth generation of his family to hold a senior position in newspapers in Warracknabeal — where Wimmera Mallee News now prints a handful of local papers. 

A man looking at a newspaper Andrew Ward took over from his father David as publisher of the Wimmera Mallee News in 2022.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)

Since 1882, the Ward family has chronicled the happenings of Yarriambiack.

“A lot of it comes down to the farming and how that’s changed now,” Andrew says.

A range of local papers The Ward family run and print several mastheads serving the Wimmera community. (ABC News: Harrison Tippet)A newspaper printing press Their printing press allows the paper to produce shorter print runs focusing on local news.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)

What was once a land of small farms and many families has become one where farmers have been bought out by neighbours and newcomers, again and again.

Now there are fewer, much larger farms and, as a result, fewer families.

“We went up to Hopetoun a few weeks ago. On the wall in the historical centre there, they have a map of all the plots of land, and there is a house every sort of block or two,” Andrew says.

“Now there’s probably a house every 20 blocks.”

This consolidation of farms is also a national trend linked with economies of scale — a larger farm can reduce costs and protect against market volatility.

Silos and fields of canola Fields of canola stretch across the landscape in Yarriambiack.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)Grain silos and a hopper Agriculture accounts for more than a third of Yarriambiack Shire’s economic output.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)A man working near grain silos More than a quarter of all residents work directly in agriculture, forestry or fishing.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)A close up shot of a silo A quarter of Victoria’s wheat and barley is produced in Yarriambiack.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

But Yarriambiack is a farming region, so those shifts have a far greater impact on this population.

As farm consolidation has driven families out, Andrew’s father David explains, so too has the remaining population aged.

“A lot of them have gone to the cemetery, of course,” he says.

Farm silos at sunset The land was once full of small farms and many families.(ABC News :Danielle Bonica)

But the demographic shifts have left a vacuum of young people. Yarriambiack’s median age at the most recent Census was 52, 14 years above the state and national median of 38.

The number of residents aged 65 or older leapt about 8 per cent over 20 years, while the proportion of people 14 and under shrunk by about the same proportion.

Two men at a football game The median age in Yarriambiack is 14 years older than the Victorian median.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

Yarriambiack Mayor Kylie Zanker is adamant that having fewer people certainly hasn’t diluted the identity of the region.

She is one of Yarriambiack Shire’s six councillors — all of whom were elected unopposed at the last council election.

Kylie Zanker Kylie Zanker has served on the council since 2008.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)

One quality Cr Zanker possesses — perhaps a mandatory quality for any country mayor — is a limitless enthusiasm about what makes the region remarkable.

“There’s so much that’s unique. But on an emotional level, I think what’s unique is the people,” Cr Zanker says.

Cr Zanker recently fell and broke her arm. In the days and weeks that followed, food packages kept arriving at her doorstep. Glancing out the window one day, she discovered neighbours mowing and weeding her garden.

Statues of sheep in the middle of a roundabout Warracknabeal wears its agricultural roots with pride.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

“When the chips are down and someone needs something, everyone pitches in,” she says.

“It’s almost an unspoken expectation that you look out for each other. And that’s what you do.

“I think it’s that cliche of if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. 

“We put in because that’s what we want, that’s the community and the world that we want to live in. So, we put into that.”

A region taking control of its own future

There were once about 40 pubs across Yarriambiack. Now there are six.

Most are now closed. Many towns have no pub, while the region’s population-centre Warracknabeal has gone from four pubs to one.

The facade of an old theatre The Dal Monte Theatre first opened in 1928, and has seen better days.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)The Royal Mail hotel The Royal Mail Hotel closed its doors in 2023.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)The facade of a pub The streets are dotted with the facades of old pubs and hotels.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)The facade of an old pub Vacant buildings are all that remain of many pubs in the area.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

In 1958, Hopetoun, in Yarriambiack’s north, built Victoria’s first cooperative hotel — owned entirely by the community.

Steve Mccullough has been pulling beers at the Hopetoun Community Hotel for much of his life. His first job was here, and now he’s the publican.

It’s a place where the community is keenly aware of preserving a meeting place of their own.

Steve Mccullough Steve Mccullough has been a familiar face behind the bar at the Hopetoun Community Hotel for years.(ABC News: Tamara Clark)

“The locals in this place… have had the perfect opportunity to see what happens to a little town like this if the pub shuts,” Steve says.

“You find a lot of locals who, being fully aware of that, having seen it happen, will come into a pub like this … not because they want or need to go to the pub, but because they understand what happens if they don’t.”

A man drinking in a pub beer garden The local watering hole provides an oasis for many residents.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)

Many who come to the pub don’t even grab a drink.

“It’s more than that,” Steve says. “It’s a meeting place for everyone, from the Gardening Club to the Catholic Ladies Auxiliary, Red Cross, Probus.”

The pub is a keen example of that maxim, “use it, or lose it”.

“They’ve seen it first-hand with other pubs in other towns. If you had told people five years ago that there’d only be one pub left in Warracknabeal, they’d call you crazy,” Steve says.

“But it happens.”

‘I haven’t been able to leave yet’

Back at Anzac Park, on a patch of grass behind the clubrooms, a couple dozen juniors from both Warrack and Stawell kicked off an unofficial footy match shortly after the siren blew on their real match.

Boys playing football in fog Juniors enjoy an unofficial kick before their game at Anzac Park. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)

More British Bulldog than football, it’s a bruising duel.

The kids are laying ferocious bumps, dumping one another to the ground with full-force fend offs, and rocketing into one another with gleeful abandon.

Despite the ferocity, there aren’t any tears or injuries — beyond a couple of cases of bruised adolescent pride.

Kyle Cheney remembers playing these games, where all the kids would go “chips-in”.

A photo of Kyle Cheney Kyle Cheney played 85 games in the AFL.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)

That was before he was pulled away from Warracknabeal as an AFL draftee in 2007 — enjoying a decade-long career.

Kyle Cheney in a locker room Kyle said that besides farming, sport was the backbone of Warracknabeal.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

Kyle returned to the Warrack Eagles in 2022, with a plan to enjoy just one more season at his boyhood club.

“[I] haven’t been able to leave yet,” he says with a grin, standing barefoot in the gravel by the oval, just before heading in to get changed for today’s game. “I’ve just fallen back in love with the place and the people.”

“Our first win — I can’t remember who was against, it must have been Horsham — and the rooms after that was as if we’d just won the grand final.

“There’s no secrets that country living is tough at times, and to be able to give back to the community with just one single win… you could just see that that was such a relief and there was so much passion in the room.

“There’s so many elements that make this town drive the way it does, but, aside from farming, sport is the backbone of it.”

A men's football locker room It’s a full house in the footy sheds on game day.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)Two pairs of bare feet The war wounds are evident on every Eagles player.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)A football player getting a massage Trainers provide some much needed relief.(ABC News: Harrison Tippet)Footy players running onto the field The nerves are high as the Eagles run onto Anzac Park.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)Yarriambiack forever

A keen eye can see exactly how things work in Yarriambiack, during an Eagles home game at Anzac Park.

It would see Lauren Clyne shoot the lights out in her Under 17s netball match, before jumping into the line-up for the As. Later in the day, it would see her in a white umpiring kit after officiating a game or two.

Two football players and their coach Locals young and old are bound together by the weekly ritual of sports.(ABC News: Tamara Clark)

It would see Lachie Stewart and Ned Grieve dishing out hot chips and gravy from the chip van, knocking off just in time to warm up for the seniors footy game.

It would see Paul Rowe chipping in wherever he’s needed all day long, taking breaks to watch his kids play footy and netball, finishing the day pulling beers in the bar.

Volunteers making salad rolls It’s all hands on deck at the Warrack canteen.(ABC News: Tamara Clark)

It would see sisters Isabella and Keeta Orszulak book-ending their netball game with shifts in the canteen and bar.

It would see a club which mirrors its town, and all of Yarriambiack.

A mural painted on a wall The sun sets on another day in Warracknabeal.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

As the region’s population decline continues, its people work just as hard to ensure it retains its identity.

That identity is ephemeral, perhaps intangible.

But it continues and evolves too.

Mural on silos Guido van Helten’s Brim mural was the first silo artwork to appear in Victoria.(Guido Van Helten)

In Brim’s iconic silo art by Guido van Helten, the first of its kind in Victoria, a multi-generational quartet of male and female farmers stand a couple of storeys tall.

Mural on silos The artist told the ABC in 2016 the characters represented the whole Wimmera region, instead of specific people.(Guido Van Helten)

Strong, earthy and resilient and as golden-brown as the surrounding plains heavy with new grain. They are symbols of those who stick around.

Unshrinking.

Credits: