Just like big families, country towns have their own parade of unique characters and passions, buildings and histories — all united by a shared sense of pride and identity.
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Over the next few months, The News will visit comunities near Shepparton to find out what makes them tick. This week, The News’ John Lewis travelled to Dookie.
Drive to Dookie from Shepparton early on a foggy autumn morning and you just might be lucky enough to see the sky float from Mt Saddleback like a soft wool necklace.
If you’re too late, and the sky is already blue never mind, just park up under the old drooping willows opposite the Gladstone Pub and go for a walk.
Dookie will reveal itself just as majestically.
The town is the opposite of Paul Keating’s famous ‘‘all tip and no iceberg’’ insult directed at Peter Costello.
Dookie is actually all berg and hardly any tip.
The main street is just a pub and few shops.
Drive through at 60kmh and the place disappears in 30 seconds.
But up the gradual slope past the willows and the clocktower live more than 320 people according to the 2016 census.
Apparently, there’s some fresh energy around town - just a rumour and nothing confirmed, no billboards or neon signs.
Just the word on the street - Mary St that is.
Let’s find out.
A good place to start in any country town is the general store, and sure enough, store owners Don and Karen Freeman reckon there is a bit of a buzz around town.
And it’s been happening well before this week’s rain arrived.
‘‘It’s coming alive again,’’ Don says.
Karen says there are new couples with children, school numbers are up and people are stopping off for a snack on their way to visit the newly-painted grain silos at Devenish.
The big seller is the lolly bag.
And these are not just any old lollies - they’re lollies like the ones your grandma told you about.
Milk bottles, redskins, bananas, teeth.
They’re all bagged up on the front counter ready to go from 50c up to $3 a bag.
Don and Karen are also kept busy delivering lunch to farmers who might be stuck on the tractor in a paddock somewhere.
Their busiest day is Friday when they can deliver up to 30 freshly-cooked hamburgers to contract workers down the road at the Cosgrove tip.
After 14 years in Dookie and eight years running the post office / shop, Don and Karen reckon the town is a warm and connected place to live.
‘‘It’s like a great big family,’’ Karen says.
Next stop along Mary St is Dookie’s meeting place and bush telegraph number two - the grandly titled ‘‘Emporium’’.
If anywhere deserves the title it’s Sol Sutherland and Janie Christophersen’s sprawling triple-fronted shop.
Here you can pick up anything from a barista-quality latte made with Central American coffee beans with a home-made pastie and lemon slice, to an army flak jacket and antique kerosene lamp.
You can also pick up a slice of the ‘‘world according to Sol’’.
‘‘I’m here to popularise the art of re-using old things,’’ he says, surveying his domain like a wild undertaker.
‘‘People walk in who are terrified of dead people’s stuff. But it’s all OK - dead people’s stuff is OK. My lifestyle is about re-using things - the only new things I buy are socks and jocks,’’ he says with just the hint of a smile.
Sol is what you might call ‘‘a character’’.
Every small town has at least one, often hidden in a shed somewhere.
Sol just happens to live and work on the main street.
Inside the small cafe, eight people are seated around the largest table and they’re ready to talk Dookie.
Now things start to get busy - and Dookie reveals its berg.
According to longtime resident Dianne Feldtmann there are at least 64 clubs including a film club, a book club, a fitness club, a drawing class and a men’s shed as well as the country town regulars - CWA, footy, RSL and Agricultural Society.
There are three churches, a primary school which ten years ago had just 19 enrolments, but which now has 40 students - and of course, just up the road sits the renowned Tallis Wine Cellar Door with stunning views of the surrounding hills.
It seems a pointless question - but just what makes people move and stay here?
‘‘It’s a safe welcoming place with a real sense of community,’’ Dianne says.
‘‘I love the hills - they always feel like coming home,’’ says crop farmer Leiticia Harmer.
Down the road at the Gladstone Pub, tables are being set up for a 50th birthday bash.
Kyabram couple Brian and Val Florence have joined established publican Jason Mulkeen to help run the place.
‘‘We just love Dookie - the people here absolutely beautiful. We knew if we came to Dookie we’d end up staying,’’ Val says.
At the other end of the block on Mary St, artist and nurseryman Andrew Sands is opening up his new combined nursery and gallery business - the Dookie Artists Tree - ready for a three-day week from Friday to Sunday.
‘‘Sandsy’’ opened the business with partner Liz Evans in September last year.
‘‘I’m optimistic about Dookie - we’ve had four young couples move here in the past six months,’’ he says.
Outside The Emporium, Sol surveys the empty cannonball run of Mary St.
‘‘When you cross the road in Dooks you don’t look, you listen. God knows what’s going to happen when electric cars arrive,’’ he says.
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