IN the tiny, historic town of Milparinka two hours north of Broken Hill, volunteers run most of the facilities in town.
The information centre, courthouse, and other historic buildings, are looked after by a rotating roster of volunteers, who travel from around the country to spend two weeks in the town as caretakers.
Last weekend, Jo and Graeme Ussing, who travelled from Nhill in Victoria and Robert and Margaret Olssmon from the New South Wales coast, tended to the structures, sharing the history of the old gold rush town with those travelling through.
The Ussings said they’d first visited Milparinka when they created maps of the area as part of Sturts Steps Touring Route, a tourism initiative that connects 1100 kilometres across the Far West NSW region.
“We made maps, and did the research for the Sturt Steps maps,” Ms Ussing said.
“We stayed out at Lake Pimpara which is where we met Ruth [Sandow, the Milparinka Heritage and Tourism Association chair].”
“So we already had a relationship, and Ruth rang us up and said she’s had some people pull out who couldn’t fufill their caretaker duties.
“So we drove up for a 10-day stint here.”
The pair arrived during the Milparinka Gymkhana, the town’s busiest day of the year.
Ms Ussing said she was shocked to see the town so bustling.
“This is the first time we’ve stayed here, we’ve just travelled through, mapping the place, driving the roads, checking out the history and things like that,” she said.
“It’s certainly a lot busier here at the information centre than I thought!”
Ms Ussing said the volunteer program is so popular that there’s generally a 12 month waitlist.
She said that skilled older people, whether that be retirees, or grey nomads, are looking to do their part and give back by volunteering.
“There’s a lot of self funded retirees who are looking to give back,” she said.
“It’s important to keep up social connections, and I think that’s what a lot of retirees are finding. I think especially people from the bush, they realise that things don’t happen in the bush without volunteers.
“They can come out here, spend a couple of weeks, and then keep on touring.”
Both Mr and Ms Ussing said they hoped to visit again.
“We might make this a regular thing,” Ms Ussing said.
The Olssmons travel throughout the region with Outback Beds, a program that connects volunteers with accommodation in exchange for volunteering in Outback NSW and southwest Queensland.
“We travel all around,” Ms Olssmon said.
“We did a private music festival last year just west of Taree. We find where to go through Outback Beds, and we saw Milparinka and thought, that sounds interesting.”
Mr Olssmon said they’re often looking for remote volunteer exchanges, mostly to keep them travelling in their retirement.
“That’s being retired, you can get a bit bored being home all the time,” he said.
“It was about 1400 kilometres to get here, but then the fact we can stay here for two and a half weeks, and the cottage we stay in is a little palace.”
