Northern NSW Community Recovery Tour - Day 4 - Boggabilla Town & Country Club
Date: Friday, March 28th, 2025
Venue: Boggabilla Town & Country Club
Numbers: 15 … maybe?
I’ve alway loved a great mixed business combo. In regional areas they are more common. Sometimes economic rationalisation is at play, as a number of seemingly disconnected product lines that couldn’t support a small business on their own, are brought together under the one roof. In some cases an established business sees a new niche open up and diversifies. Some of my favourite combos …
Port Lincoln, SA - Mobility scooters & kites
Hobart, Tas - Toys & guns
Tocumwal, NSW - Cellar door & military museum
The Boggabilla Club is pub & post office. Post offices are often one half of the weird shop combos in country towns. I’ve seen them merged with haberdashers, chemists & laundromats, but never a pub or club.
There are several advantages to having the post office in the pub/club
If you can’t finish your meal, you can have it mailed home.
If you have a massive stoush with your spouse, you can buy a legal will kit over the bar.
If you’re stressed after losing money on the pokies, you can go & buy some bubble wrap to calm down.
Boggabilla is 9km south of the Queensland border town of Goondiwindi. According to local elder Carl McGrady, the town’s population is roughly 60 % indigenous, with nearby Toomelah, which was formerly a mission, completely indigenous.
At the furthest reaches of the Moree Plains Shire, it has been largely ignored and lacks the most basic of resources. The school stands as a beacon and the club the only other service.
Carl McGrady works tirelessly with the communities and schools to try to get the younger generations to connect to community and lore, but says he faces a tough battle. ‘Ever since they started flipping their caps backwards, we lost them,’ he opined. ‘They identify with cultures that aren’t their own. Their phones have taken them away from us.’ The loss of culture corrodes the structure of the communities as the young ones coming through, don’t have the inherited respect of their elders, making it almost impossible to impose lore to try bring them to heal.
The non-indigenous kids in Boggabilla, mostly catch buses to schools in Goondiwindi, which leads to further segregation in the community. The Boggabilla Central School is widely acclaimed, so it’s hard to not see race as the primary reason people are sending their kids over the border to school. Carl estimates that the school numbers would rise from 110, to close to 300 if the Queensland Government stopped paying for the bus services.
The show was held in the main room squeezed between the pokies parlour & sports room, with a wall of screens showing the rugby league and race meetings. Apart Bruce, Joan & Lyla, no-one had booked. For some time it seemed they might be the entire audience, so I got to know them before the show. Long time residents, they used to come to the club regularly but hadn’t been there for 13 years. They were pleased when they heard there was a free show and decided to make a night of it. Shane arrived next. Incapacitated and wheel chair bound, he came over the border from Goondiwindi to see the show with his two young carers, Maddy & Bella. Next to arrive were Judy & Leslie, who had made a late booking. Our fears of not having a show were allayed: we were just shy of double figures.
(The author seemingly playing a show to one man in a wheelchair & an abandoned bundy & coke)
Carl and his son Adam came in from the sports room and comedy fans Chris & Tracey arrived with suggestions about what indigenous comics we should have booked. (I’ll be giving you a bell soon, Kev Kopinyeri & Dane Simpson)
As the show kicked off, more people wandered in from the other rooms & loitered near the bar. I knew everyone names up to this point, so I asked the new comers if I could just make up their names, so I could keep the show flowing This was better received than I expected & some wore their new names proudly for the rest of the night.
Memorable Moments
The mens toilet was right beside the stage, so when Bruce had to go, I stood at the the door holding it open so he could continue to hear the show.
The empty tables at the front became set pieces for expanded physicalisation of my storytelling. So much so, that on subsequent nights I was almost disappointed when they were occupied.
Chris & Tracey reckoned I was alright and I should come back when Kevin & Dane tour.
Carl sharing his story and knowledge with me after the show. Huge respect to you sir.
(The author with Carl & Mick in the sports room pre-show. To the best of my knowledge, Mick was unable to drag himself away from the Muswellbrook Greyhounds)
Brilliant Damian!