Caption: Burnside’s, Jean and unknown bagging off wheat at machine. Photo Jill Burnside/ Facebook. Photo: Jill Burnside/ Facebook.
Salmon Gums is celebrating 100 years in true country spirit with market stalls, food, historical displays and old-school games next Saturday.
Festival goers can compete for prizes in hay bale rolling, gumboot throwing and the decorated bike competition from 10am to 4pm.
Farmers will have the opportunity to show off their sheaves of wheat and barley in the cropping competition while the Mallee CWA are hosting a cake contest.
The community centre is also hosting a dinner at 5.30pm, which people can register for on the “Salmon Gums 100-year anniversary” Facebook page.
The event is free for everyone to join and in true country fashion, Salmon Gums local Sam Starcevich said: “the more the merrier”.
“We’re not that far from Esperance, so come up for the day because there’s plenty of food and there will be stuff to look at and lots of stuff on display so it will be great to see everybody up here,” Mrs Starcevich said.
“We just want to make it a recognition of the town and everyone that’s had a link to it and even if you haven’t, we’ve got Lions coming up and donuts — it should be a good day.
“We’ve still got plenty of room too so if anyone’s got stalls in Esperance they want to bring up for the day, come up.”
Salmon Gums is thriving farming region known for its wheat, barley and other cereal crops.
The Starceviches are an established family in the region and Mrs Starcevich said she hoped to share the town’s sense of community and pride.
“For a little town we seem to have touched a lot of people over the years — there’s so many people coming back that have been attached to Salmon Gums,” she said.
“It’s a good place to be, there’s so much history to the town and it’s been through the highs and through the lows and we are officially 100 years and we’re still here.”
Salmon Gums was chartered in 1925 but its history dates to 1912 when the land was first reserved for a townsite and the Esperance-Norseman railway.
Soldiers settled in the area after World War I for farming purposes but drought and low soil fertility proved problematic until the 1940s when an agricultural research station was developed.
Mrs Starcevich said they were still finding traces of Salmon Gums’ history today.
“It’s unbelievable like we’ve had someone that’s been prospecting – looking at some old ruins – and she found this victory medallion from the first world war,” she said.
“We’ve been doing research on that family because their name is imprinted around the medal and this has been lost up in the bush since the early 1920s.”
Country shows were a big part of Salmon Gums’ history too, according to Mrs Starcevich.
“There used to be a Salmon Gums show every year and then it became every four years and now we just don’t have the people to do it anymore so I think our last one might have been in 2000,” she said.
Festival goers will get a taste of the old Salmon Gums show on September 27.
