Australian rural charity Rural Aid has just finished up a week of making-over the town of Walgett as part of its national Our Towns program.

Walgett was one of 10 towns in Australia selected out of 67 applications for the program that will benefit from $100,000 to boost its growth and sustainability over the next five years.

Four of these 10 towns were from NSW – including Walgett – with another four from Queensland and one each in Victoria and South Australia.

Local sponsor of the Our Towns project in NSW was Holdmark Property Group from Sydney.

Secretary of the Walgett CWA Christine Ford said applying for the program began as a CWA initiative, but quickly brought in other organisations, including the North West Plains Sustainability Group and Walgett Shire Council.

“We want people to enjoy our town as much as we do and would like people to be proud of it and would like tourists to think it’s a nice town to visit,” Ms Ford said.

“We were very excited when we found out we were successful.”

A member of the Our Towns judging panel, Peter Kenyon from the Bank of I.D.E.A.S, worked with local townspeople to create a strategic plan that would inform Walgett’s development over the next five years.

Work on the town makeover was initially delayed due to flooding but finally commenced on the week starting Monday 24 May, wrapping up on Friday 28 May.

Rural Aid Farm and Community Program Coordinator Grant Miskimmin said 35 volunteers have been spending the past week doing a variety of projects throughout the town in line with this strategic plan.

One of the volunteer projects was at the Walgett community gardens, working on and painting some potting sheds. PHOTO: Rural Aid

“We’ve divided our volunteers into teams – most of them are grey nomads – and they’ve been going out daily,” Mr Miskimmin said.

“Examples of projects they’ve been working on include some work at the community garden, building some planter beds at Apex Park and positioning 10 new street seats around town.”

Walgett Shire Council’s Senior Visitor Information Centre Officer Alana Copelin – who was also instrumental in applying for the Our Towns program – said the volunteers had been phenomenal all week and looked forward to seeing how the projects, and the ones still to come, would improve the Walgett atmosphere.

“After the drought, floods, mouse plague, we sometimes forget how lucky we are to live here, so having fresh eyes to remind us was amazing,” Mrs Copelin said.

“One of our next projects we’re super excited about is new town entrance signs – we’re working with a local engineer and designer to create something that is representative of Walgett.

“I think the perception of Walgett is changing for the better, which will have long term effects for us and our local tourism.”

Volunteers at Apex Park, where some new planter beds were set up as part of the makeover. PHOTO: Rural Aid

According to Mr Miskimmin, the next Our Towns project is planned for Brewarrina from Sunday 4 to Friday 10 July.

However, he said Rural Aid volunteers and staff would continue to check in with Walgett over the next five years to make sure they stayed on track.