Heathcote: inside Victoria’s divided heartland

The sign as you drive into Heathcote declares the town “Victoria’s heartland”.

But hidden behind the facade of a main drag lined by heritage buildings and dotted with wine bars are young people who aren’t working or going to school, families struggling to put a decent meal on the table, small businesses closing down and pensioners worried sick about paying the rent. 

St Vincent de Paul Society’s deputy state president, Carol Messer, has lived in the central Victorian town for a decade. She described it as a “microcosm” of a trend playing out in rural towns across the state.

"Here in Heathcote it is getting much more difficult for working families to deal with the cost of living – utilities, water, travel, fuel – all of those things that come with living in a rural town," Mrs Messer said. 

"Housing, the cost of rent, the cost of bonds...

“The cost of living for ordinary, low-income working folks – let alone those who subsist on benefits – is enormous.” 

Her husband, Kevin, recently retired as principal of the town’s catholic primary school and head of its local St Vinnies chapter after five years. He said an increasing number of young people were among those living on welfare – trapped into generational poverty. 

”The number one issue here is our young people – education in Heathcote is seen as optional,” Mr Messer said. 

Mr Messer said a significant number of young people “don't go anywhere after high school,” and many don't make it that far. 

“We've two primary schools here but no secondary, so high school students have to bus to Bendigo. 

“That’s a big disadvantage, and when they have no role models, no one who went through school...

”Meanwhile in Heathcote, there is virtually no work for young people, little chance to do a trade, there’s no major industries and only seasonal farm work.” 

Pete Sannwald at the Heathcote Community House said the lack of education was locking a people out of work. 

“Literacy and numeracy standards drop well below the state average from about 14-years and upwards,” the office and volunteer manager said. 

“There are lots of people on Newstart who want to work but can’t, and that comes back to their literacy and numeracy.”

Mr Sannwald said the centre was helping some obtain food and alcohol handling certificates, to help land them jobs in a town’s wine industry. 

However, even those within the industry are skeptical about its ability to provide the answer to the town’s unemployment crisis. 

“You’d be a very brave person to open another winery in Heathcote,” Heathcote Winery CEO Stephen Wilkins said. “And the wine industry does employ… but it’s seasonal.”

Mr Wilkins and his wife Denise have run the winery for nearly two decades.

“There hasn’t been a single major infrastructure project in that time,” he said.

“Successive governments across all tiers have had a policy of concentrating infrastructure in bigger towns, the Bendigos, the Geelongs, the Ballarats… satellite towns – the Heathcotes – miss out.”

Mr Wilkins said he believed economic growth and employment could be generated from the “things which feed of the wine industry” – a renovated pub, a country-style golf resort, restaurants and festivals. 

At the moment, however, many of the businesses looking to tap into tourism are being squeezed out by high rent.

Rent squeezing small business out of business

Lorraine Weiland and her son Anthony run a florist which lives and dies on the trade of “passers-by”. 

Florist Lorraine Weiland sold her Melbourne home and bought a heritage building and its adjoining house in Heathcote 25-years ago for a song. 

“Our business wouldn't survive if we were paying rent,” Mrs Weiland said. 

“We’d be like that lolly shop and the cafe next door with for sales signs whacked up.”

It is not just small business which is under stress – community institutions are struggling to provide services to an ageing and unemployed population.

This week, pensioners at the Lions Housing Estate were officially told the complex had been transferred to Melbourne-based, non-profit Wintringham.

“I feel sick in the guts,” resident Kevin Ra said, holding up the letter. 

The single pensioner described moving into the housing estate a decade ago as “the best thing that ever happened” to him. For six years prior, he lived in the caravan park.

A common theme runs among those who live in the caravan park today: boredom.

Ian Stewart moved into a cabin in that park after several years of living in a caravan in free camping sites across Victoria. 

“There’s a lack of a social outlet for people who live by themselves,” Mr Stewart said. 

“The neighbourhood centre shuts at 3pm… the only place to go after is that is the pub.” 

Like many who live in the park, Mr Stewart is on unemployment benefits. With back problems and a hernia, he is limited in the work he can do – but he is studying horticulture at TAFE in Bendigo.

“I’d like to run my own business out of Bendigo,” he said. “To service the outlying towns, in many of these places you can’t get tradies and workers to go out there.” 

In the meantime, Mr Stewart has taken up fishing with a neighbour to keep entertained. But he, and many others, suffer from social isolation.

“Not many of us go to the cafes and there’s not anything else to do if you’re not into bowls. 

“It would be nice to have a place to watch the news together, for people to just sit and talk together.”  

But even as it frays, there are those stitching up the social fabric of Heathcote.

Can the poverty cycle be broken? 

Kate Lawrence runs netball at the Heathcote Football Netball Club, which has recently secured more council and state government funding for a multi-million dollar upgrade of its facilities. 

Mrs Lawrence now lives in nearby Axedale, but grew up in-and-around Heathcote. 

“Drugs are a big issue out there,” Mrs Lawrence said. And, like most communities around Australia, so is the cost of organised sport. 

“But as a club we’ve taken some steps to try and address that issue – for one, we’ve halved the membership fees for the last two years,” she said. 

The results, Mrs Lawrence said, were immediate. 

“A few years ago we were struggling for numbers… this year is the first year we've been able to field the full four senior netball teams in our league,” she said. 

“It's been tight, financially, but we've managed it and dealt with it within the club – we just want the kids playing sport.” 

For the netballer, sport is giving local kids a sense of belonging, an active lifestyle and, most importantly, something to do after school. 

Inside the school grounds, others are taking steps to try and tackle some of the social issues facing the town.

For nearly five years, Michele Witham has been running a kitchen-garden program several days a week at Heathcote Primary School. 

This Thursday it was spinach and red lentil soup, rocket salad, vegetable fritters, homemade bread and raspberry muffins on the menu. Last week, curry and naan bread. 

“They’re quite sophisticated now in their tastes,” Mrs Witham said. 

“At the start, many wouldn’t try the food, now it’s: ‘please can we make samosas this week?’”

The landscape designer said the program was not only about changing the children’s lifestyles, but reaching into the family home. 

“It’s about creating life skills, many of these kids come from non-cooking homes – often they come from second-generation non-cooking families,” she said. 

“And it has a knock-on effect, often they’ll go home and cook for mum and dad and grandma.” 

These initiatives demonstrate that Heathcote, while a town racked with social problems, is also one which is teeming with practical ideas about how to address those issues. 

For Mrs Messers at St Vinnies, improving the capacity of the local Centrelink branch would reduce the need for pensioners to make trips to report-in at the Bendigo office. 

Her husband believes a locally-based high school would see more students finish school. 

Mr Sannwald at the Neighbourhood House is convinced improved bus services to Bendigo would enable more unemployed people to have access to work. 

Cellar door manager at Heathcote Winery, Mandy Taylor, said more childcare would alleviate the stress on single mothers, many of whom are forced to go to Bendigo, or go without. 

It is these ideas to which the City of Greater Bendigo will listen as it begins consultation with the Heathcote community this month about future service provision for the town. 

Council said it would talk with key stakeholders over the last two weeks of this month.

Afterwards, it will begin open community discussions – at a date yet to be set. Along the way, according to local businessman Mr Wilkins, the town may answer some more fundamental questions.

“Heathcote is struggling to work out its identity,” he said. “It’s not trendy like a Kyenton… it doesn’t really know what it is about.”