On the Eyre Peninsula wheat belt, inland from the stunning coastal towns of Ceduna and Streaky Bay, lies Wirrulla – “The Town with a Secret”, at the Western gateway to the Gawler Ranges.
But we’re certain we’ve discovered the secret, in the form of a delectable “Double Banger Hot Dog”, in the heart of the town – The Wirrulla General Store. Either that or it’s the town jetty – rumoured to be the World’s only jetty with a 5th hole tee-off and a 365 day-a-year dodge tide.
Servicing the surrounding farming community and passing travellers, The Wirrulla General Store, has recently been taken over by a young couple with a soft spot for the little country community.
After working on a remote cattle station in Western Australia for the past five years, Brodie Sawyer and Danica “Dani” Wilksch have returned to the town they fell in love with before they left, armed with plenty of stories from their outback escapades.
Dani had previously worked at the Wirrulla store, while Brodie worked for a local farmer, and the couple dreamt of owning and running the store back then. And after knuckling down and working hard in the West, they’re back, giving the little “go-to” store for everything, a new lease of life – a welcome relief for the community facing the store’s imminent closure.
“The Store and Post Office are an important part of the community and would have been a huge loss if it had closed,” Dani said.
Providing household staples, fresh fruit and veg, bakery lines, drinks, a postal service and fuel, as well as their Double Banger Hot Dogs, the new owners have made some small changes to the layout of the store, with plans for bigger things in the future.
“Down the track we are looking at updating the internal layout, an outside seating area and getting a much needed larger capacity diesel tank,” Dani said.
A great advocate for the town, she’s still not privy to “the town’s secret”, but said there was “a great little caravan park across the road which the Wirrulla Progress run and upkeep”.
“We have many tourists come through, travelling along east to west or vice versa, they come in for fuel, coffee, snacks and a lot of them mention that they love to support the smaller towns.
