A grim future for Eumungerie's farmers

Graincorp have recently announced their 'Regeneration' project, which will result in the closure of tens of grain silos across NSW in a triumph of value stripping out of a former publicly-owned service.  Its a nice bit of 'regeneration', if you define regeneration as sawing off one of your legs in the hope that the lost weight will mean that you can run faster.

For the Coonamble line it will mean that Coonamble and Gilgandra are the two primary sites, with Gular as the third site.  Curban will be held for overflow in future years, while Armatree will remain open for overflow in 2014/15, then to move to 'non-operational' from 2015/16.

Eumungerie and Combara will be placed into 'non-operational' - in simpler words, closed. Last year's harvest was probably the last.

All may not be lost, yet. Graincorp will rent you a silo at Eumungerie, Combar or Armatree. All you need to do is download a form from their website.

Sigh...

Village life in 2012

I am planning  bit of an assault on clearing some of the 'blog backlog' over the coming months.  One thing I thought would be timely is a bit of a look around the village of Eumungerie as it stands now.

These photos were taken around dusk on 12 January 2012.  No trains in this one, but there are few landmarks in Eumungerie that don't reek of railway.  First up, the railway yard...

Next, where all thirsty railway workers go - the pub. Currently known as the Drover's Dog.

And here is the village post office - or at least it was in 2012.  Hopefully it is still there...

This well-restored property's substantial out-building with chimney is a reminder that 40 odd years ago this was Pope's Bakery.

The local petrol station has seen better days, about 50 years ago.

And now for the Eumungerie-Coboco Hall.  Lucky it wasn't built at Coboco, as nothing exists at that location these days.

 

This rather substantial buildings was once the general store, and sold the best lollies in town.  The best of everything, actually.

Time to leave Eumungerie, with a shot of why it ever existed...