Mobile and Digital Stories from Down Under: Tales from Rural Australia (original) (raw)

2021, Mobile Storytelling in an Age of Smartphones

Yarriambiack Shire is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, located in the northwestern part of the state, more than four hours' drive northwest from the capital city of Melbourne. It covers an area of 7158 square kilometres and, at the 2016 Census, had a population of 6674 people. Yarriambiack Shire includes a number of towns-five of which are included in these mobile-mentaries, that is, the towns of Hopetoun, Murtoa, Rupanyup, Beulah and Minyip. The populations vary for the townships, the largest is Murtoa (865 people), and Beulah has the smallest population (429 people) (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2017). The area is known for being the heartland of grain production in the Wimmera and Mallee region with agriculture being the region’s main industry. Many people living in the area have a shared history, as some families have lived in the township for generations. This connection between the land and the people that live there, and their sense of pride in their shared history, are embodied in the digital stories. We encounter examples of this shared history in images and conversation about, for example, personal experiences of working in a grain “stick shed” over fifty years ago; local community members telling stories of the history of the founding of the township and key community members depicted in a town mural; community members developing a lake for recreational activities; donations to a collection of farming equipment for display in a farming museum and an archive of horse-related memorabilia. In all the digital stories, the storytellers fondly recount past memories, the signifi- cance of artefacts and key community members who contributed to the shared sense of history. These digital stories were funded by the Yarriambiack Shire council for the purposes of promoting local, rural and unique places and spaces of interest with the aim of increasing recognition of local attractions and encouraging visitors to the area.