Local Buloke Shire Young Citizen of the year (2024), Blake Lee, and Birchip P-12 teacher, Marian Haddrick, have created an advertisement for the township of Birchip to encourage a swell in population to take up the available employment opportunities in the region.
The short film, which incorporates interviews with locals and Blake’s footage of local events and businesses, seeks to encourage people to move to Birchip to take up employment opportunities, and was launched on the Birchip web page earlier in the week.
The focus of the film is to talk to people that have successfully made the move to Birchip and the benefits they have found by coming to this Mallee town. The film also intends to inform potential employees about the lifestyle benefits and resources that are available to them.
Marian Haddrick, who is involved in the school community as well as the Early Learning Centre and Playgroup Committee, identified a common problem that kept arising in conversation; that Birchip is a thriving community that has more job opportunities than it does people.
Recruitment of new people to the town sometimes posed a problem with people’s reservations about relocating to a remote rural community. Marian approached the school leadership, and then worked with Blake Lee, to devise an advertisement to assist local businesses and employers to recruit.
Having moved to Birchip herself in 2021, Marian felt she had an outsider’s perspective on what future families would want to know about the town before moving here.
Blake, a 2023 ABC Heywire winner and Birchip P-12 school captain, has used his film skills to capture the natural beauty of Birchip as well as the vibrant community events and various businesses to showcase what the township of Birchip has to offer.
For more information on the job opportunities in Birchip and Buloke, and the benefits of moving to a rural community, go to the Birchip Web Page www.birchip.vic.au and check out the video under the “Move to Birchip” tab.
This article appeared in The Buloke Times, 26 April 2024.
