Wondai, in the centre of Queensland’s South Burnett wine region, is enjoying an economic revival thanks to people passionate about preserving the past, its sense of community, and housing affordability.
Former Sunshine Coast couple Julie and Phil Wagner made an offer on the same day friends sent them a photograph showing the Wondai Hotel up for sale.
Their initial plan after signing a contract on the 1903 building in June last year was to renovate it purely for their retirement home, or a bed and breakfast.
But that changed after repeated requests from locals to reopen the pub and six guest rooms.
The Wagners say they had since done about 90 per cent of the renovation themselves, with more work still ahead.
“There has not been a surface that hasn’t been painted or floor that hasn’t been either renewed or redone,” Ms Wagner says.
“She’s just the most beautiful thing and it’s just such a joy to actually live here in it because it’s one of those buildings that just has so much history.”
Despite Wondai’s real estate values rising 23.9 per cent in the past 12 months, a three-bedroom house can still be purchased for less than $260,000.
The median house price is $303,500 with an average 6 per cent rental yield.
Wondai’s cheapest home on the market is a two-bedroom cottage, priced at $195,000.
Ms Wagner says the town’s affordability allows people to move to the country, work from home and have a nice lifestyle, instead of being “totally beholden to their mortgage”.
“I said to my husband, in hindsight, we were paying no more, with a finished product, than we would be paying if we lived on the Sunshine Coast in just an ordinary house.”
Their decision not to install poker machines is part of their plan to keep conversations flowing and honour Wondai’s rich sense of community.
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South Burnett regional councillor Scott Henschen says Wondai’s population has increased by 8.5 per cent — from 1,960 to 2,127 — in the past two years.
The town is on the recreational rail trail, has a wood museum, two sawmills, a trucking company, art gallery, sporting facilities, free camping opposite the Wondai hotel and showground camping.
“It’s a vibrant, buzzing little town,” Cr Henschen says.
“There’s plenty happening not just in everyday life but with developments and infrastructure improvements.”
David and Tania Earle are passionate about promoting Wondai through workshops that draw in tourists and residents to the saddlery they opened in June 2021.
The couple took a leap of faith when Mr Earle left his lucrative job as a driller in the mining sector to move to Wondai and take up hand-crafting saddles, gun belts, and holsters full time.
“We’d already been running the saddlery from home anyway, so we already had an online presence,” Ms Earle says.
“Nonetheless, it’s very daunting, stepping away from a six-figure income into doing your own business.”
Mr Earle says he has a lengthy waiting list for his custom-made saddles, which took between 40 and 50 hours to craft.
“Everyone seems to think that saddleries are a dying trade but there’s still a large need for saddles here in Australia,” Mr Earle says.
“I’ve currently got more than 15 saddles on the books to be made ranging from our standard stock saddle through to roping saddles, Wade saddles, and we’ve got a couple of cutting saddles to make as well.”
The couple regularly invites champion leather plaiter Chris Barr and his braiding business partner Diana Balhorn to hold whip-making classes.
Mr Barr’s most intricate hand-dyed rawhide whips sell for thousands of dollars to international collectors.
Beginners are taught to make four-strand whips, but the strong kangaroo hide can be cut much finer.
“The most strings that I’ve used in a handle on a stockwhip is 96,” Mr Barr says.
“And those strands are about point 6.7 of a millimetre wide.”
Ms Earle says she is enthusiastic about Wondai’s potential and welcoming more tourists.
“We have a free camp, but we’ve also got the showgrounds as well, which have beautiful camping if you don’t want to free camp and lots of Airbnbs, and lots of wineries — it’s a brilliant position to be in.”
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