With a mix of rusted-on locals and fresh-faces, Currabubula's residents and businesses are banding together to get the place humming. Jacob McArthur found the small town spirit was alive and well.
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IT’S the town with the long, funny name just a stone’s throw from Tamworth.
You blink and you might miss it when you’re driving, but there’s a lot of noise coming from the tiny town of Currabubula which is becoming hard to ignore.
A group has formed to get the town’s heart beating a bit stronger and make sure the name Currabubula doesn’t slip anyone’s mind any time soon.
The locals are naturally parochial about Curra’, whether their family has been there for generations or they’re tree-changers uprooting from the relative hustle-and-bustle of Tamworth.
The Currabubula Local Advisory Group, or LAG, mightn’t have the sexiest name, but their aim couldn’t be any farther from letting the town lag in any sense.
Liverpool Plains mayor Andrew Hope boldly said the group could “aim to make dreams a reality” in the small town.
The LAG is partnered with the council to secure funding for their “dream projects” and bring them to fruition.
Local mum Veronica Filby is leading the group with a simple vision for the town.
“I’ve seen how great communities can be at working together and creating spaces that people can enjoy,” she said.
“We’re just trying to make it so it is family friendly and visitor friendly.
“We want to make it a place that families want to live in.”
What’s the first priority for the group which could make “dreams a reality”? Tennis, anyone.
An upgraded tennis court in Currabubula keeps locals at home and brings out-of-towners to the village.
“So you would stop that needing to drive to town for tennis lessons,” Ms Filby said.
“If we had a good enough facility we could encourage coaches to come out.
“It’s got a very high membership here.”
Being such a small town, it’s easier to know what the community wants, which is reflected by the work of the local businesses.
Local Greg Parkinson has seen groups like these come and go before, but this time, in his mind, it’s a bit different.
“We tried this once before, but the support wasn’t there,” he said.
“There was a different set of people, a lot of entrenched ideas.
“They wanted new people to come and talk to them but they didn’t want to listen to things that they didn’t want to hear.
“What Ronnie [Filby] has done is just focused a few people, and hopefully the whole of the community.”
It might only be a few people who needed to get ‘focused’, the small-number of businesses in town know there’s no choice but to band together.
No pub, no town
Kathy Dodd took over the Currabubula Pub two years ago, which is no small task in a town like this.
“If there’s no pub, there’s no town,” as one local simply put it.
Ms Dodd knows it’s important the “pub is the hub” in Currabubula.
It could be a daunting mantle to take as the town’s publican, but it’s a simple formula which seems to be working for Ms Dodd.
“Sometimes little communities can be cliquey or whatever,” she said.
“But from the day we walked through the door, we were embraced.
“I’ve always found that you need to support back, you need to to give back to the community that you would like to support you.
The community is ready and willing to show a lot of support for the pub, with a number of people getting behind a cheeky fundraiser the hotel is organising for the town.
“We’d like to do the men of Curra’ calendar,” Ms Dodd said.
“I’ve got quite a few, we’re going to do it in groups, the farmers, then miners, the police, the fire brigade, the pony camp, the pub boys and that way we’ve got between six and 10 people per month in a group.
“The money raised from the calendar put those proceeds for something for our community. I haven’t had a knock back yet.”
The men of Curra’ calendar is probably one of the smaller things Ms Dodd has in mind for the town, with plans to greatly expand the hotel’s accommodation.
“Our plan will be to build a motel,” she said.
“We’ve got three out of four blocks facing the motel across the road.
“If it works, then we’ll build a motel-style B&B or something.
“Which will create more employment, once again, for the locals and it will be a good thing for the community.”
For Ms Dodd, it’s easy to be a good thing for the community when you can tailor the business to what the people want.
It’s one of the only poker-machine free pubs for many miles, and they make canteen meals for the primary school on Tuesdays because the parents thought it’d be nice to have a day off from packing lunches.
While the pub is happy to shape its business around what the people want, there’s really only one thing they ask of the patrons.
“In Curra’, you have to have a chat,” Ms Dodd told one visitor who asked why there were no pokies, TAB or Sky channels.
Something the locals appreciate.
“They like the fact that if they come out for a party or a group, someone isn’t going to buzz-off there and alienate themselves away,” she said.
“They actually have to sit down and have a chat. We believe we’ve done the right thing.”
Currabubula is closer to Tamworth than Quirindi, the administrative centre of the Liverpool Plains shire, but the mayor said there’s great satisfaction in the town’s spirit.
“One of the things that really makes me extremely gratified as mayor of the shire is the community spirit and pride our villages display,” Cr Hope said.