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Where do Visiting Volunteers stay?  

Frequently Asked Questions

In 2006 the Milparinka Heritage and Tourism Association trialed using "voluntourists" to help operate the Milparinka Heritage Precinct.  The trial was such as success that the Association went on to apply for funding to provide onsite accommodation for the "visiting volunteers".  Today a beautifully restored cottage provides short term accommodation for some volunteers, whilst others, travelling with their own caravans or similar, take up residence nearby.

Together these people keep the Milparinka dream alive.

We attract volunteers using the internet and by encouraging word of mouth referrals. No special requirements are asked of volunteers; a friendly manner and an open mind are helpful qualities.

This is how Visiting Volunteers help us.

• They provide local and regional tourist information through the Barracks Precinct Visitor Centre as well as referrals to other attractions and local businesses.
• They undertake minor maintenance and cleaning of our facilities and actively provide security to our buildings and assets.
• They collect donations and entry fees, sell souvenirs and assist with catering projects, our only real means of regularly raising tourism funds.
• Importantly, they provide a friendly face to visitors and usually offer hospitality in the form of tea and biscuits.
• They maintain visitor statistics and record all cash sales and donations.

Statistically, with help from Visiting Volunteers, we are able to demonstrate much improved visitation to Milparinka. In May 2004, on average, 6.9 people visited the Heritage Precinct, in May 2005, 6.6.  In May 2006 our Visiting Volunteers recorded an average daily visitation of 18.9.  In August 2004 visitation rate was 7.2; 9.48 people per day in August 2005 and in August 2006 an average of 17.7. 

This number is steadily increasing.  By the end of the tourist season 2007 volunteers had recorded more than 4000 visitors.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Milparinka is a tiny community located in the Unincorporated Area of far north western New South Wales, about 40 kilometres south of Tibooburra and 300 kilometres north of Broken Hill.  It is the oldest proclaimed township in the Corner Country, and is situated on the banks of the Evelyn Creek, named by Charles Sturt during his 1845 Inland Expedition. 

During the expedition Sturt and his men were forced to spend six months trapped by drought on the banks of nearby Preservation Creek.  The site of this heroic feat is one of our region’s, and Australia’s, most significant heritage places, as symbolised by a still-intact cairn built on top of Mt Poole.

In the 1870s, as pastoralism spread across the west of the colony, gold was discovered not far from Sturt’s Depot Glen.  As the newly announced mineral boom brought more and more people to the area (named the Albert Goldfields) the pressure on scarce water resources grew, and a township was established on the Evelyn Creek’s waterhole. 

At the time of its 1880 proclamation Milparinka boasted all the trappings of a modern day community: hotels, shops, a blacksmith shop, a bank and a post office.  Gradually it also acquired the symbols of colonial administration; a police station and cells, a courthouse and a school.

Resources’ booms are notoriously followed by a bust, and by the early twentieth century Milparinka and the other townships of the Albert Goldfields were no longer viable communities.  As the majority of the three thousand goldfields’ residents left the area Milparinka became a virtual ghost town.  Tibooburra, once known as The Granites, survived to become the Corner Country’s administration centre.

For close to eighty years Milparinka remained in limbo. With the owners gone the many local sandstone buildings became ruins, mostly assimilating with the dry dusty earth from which they had been carved. One hotel, the Albert remained open, trading beers and meals with a few locals and the odd passerby.

Down the rise from the Albert, on the crest of a ridge above the creek stood the Courthouse, a magnificent example of colonial architecture, sturdy, but also succumbing to the elements and vandalism.Whilst it was the initiative of local people in the 1980s that halted the destruction of the building, it was a new organisation formed in 2000 that actually brought it back to life.

Slowly, over the past seven years, this organisation, the Milparinka Heritage and Tourism Association, comprising mainly of station people,  has gone about attending to its core business of preserving and interpreting our community and region’s heritage.  It operates on a voluntary basis, drawing funds for projects from competitive grant programs, donations and more recently, from the sales of souvenirs. 

The Association was responsible staging a re-enactment of Cobb and Co Gold escort to mark the 125^th anniversary since proclamation, an event which attracted more that 350 people to the community in 2005, and other community celebrations.

For its work the Association has been awarded considerable merit: a Business Enterprise Award in 2004 and finalist in the Community of the Year Award in 2004 and 2005.  In 2005 the Association also received a Volunteer Heritage Award, and in 2007 a Tourism New South Wales encouragement award in the field of heritage tourism.

Further information is available by contacting Ruth Sandow on:

Telephone 08 80912524

Facsimile   08 80912540

Email: pimpara.lake@bigpond.com

Mail to: Pimpara Lake Station, via Broken Hill NSW 2880

www.outbacknsw.com.au

or copy and print the form below, complete and mail or fax to the above contacts.