MINIMUM 1.5 METRES OR 1 DIRT ROAD

[Minimum 1.5m or 1 dirt road]

Social-distance walking in Binalong recently — lucky to live in such a picturesque area where it also isn’t hard to avoid people. A combination of country space and everyone doing their best to keep one another safe. 

In the village centre the butcher’s open as normal and we can still get newspapers and staples from the wee shop but the Post Office currently closes at 1 pm and the pub is only open (takeaways) lunch time and tea time. The Old Produce Store in total lockdown has reeled in its gay buntings and model sheep, while the old General Store, between jobs so to speak, solemnly awaits a new future. We can still have takeaway food from said Hotel Binalong Wed-Sat with the new luxury of home delivery Saturday dinner times, takeaways from Café on Queen on weekends and The Binalong Community Club on Sunday evenings (also alcohol). The Royal Tara Motel has introduced takeaway Tuesday Chinese and Tuesday Curries. We are tiny but we are creative. There is the added bonus of saying a socially distanced hi if you arrive at a similar time to other locals treating themselves — that’s nearly as exciting as distance waving to one another in the bigger town supermarket.

Our small village is far from a bustling metropolis at any time but now it can be coronavirus eerily quiet. Driving through, say on a mid-week afternoon, reminds me of country towns in rural decline and how this is what Binalong could look like permanently if it didn’t have its active community. We worry about businesses (whether shops, farms or freight) surviving the pandemic, but Binalong will do everything possible to flourish. 

In another life I worked in regional arts development and would hear a lot about rural town decline. The most common refrain from the communities was: ‘How can we get our young people to stay?’ Let them go out into the world I say — think about how to bring them back. In Binalong we have fresh air, clear skies, birds, space, animals, sticks to collect in the paddock, family fun, community activities, art/artists — lifestyle. Young people are returning to start their families and we have the delight of that generation plus babies and toddlers everywhere. 

And even the COVID-19 cloud has a silver lining — it's called Zoom — I have never 'been to' so many poetry events in such a short space of time! Watch for news on a Brush with Poetry thanks to Coordinator Robyn Sykes. Thanks also Robyn for the photo and the walk.