The Mallee is a vast area of some 20,000 square kilometres of sandy,undulating country, stretching from the Murray River to the north and west, across to the South Australian – Victorian border, and south to around 50 kilometres below the Mallee Highway.
Used primarily as grazing country in the late 1800s, the Mallee began to change with the arrival of the first settlers in the early 1900s. From 1906, at least six railway corridors were established. These newly laid“lines” allowed small farming communities to spring up along their length, and towns were quickly proclaimed, complete with schools, businesses, halls and, in almost every case, a football team.
For many years the region prospered through wheat and sheep farming, but the Mallee was always regarded as marginal country, bringing with it good seasons and bad.
Advances in farming technology led to larger acreages and fewer people on the land. Inevitably, services began to disappear—schools and sporting clubs among the first—followed in time by the railways that had sparked the original growth.
Where once there were thriving communities, ghost towns now stand. The area I have defined as the ‘Mallee’ zone once supported 13 football leagues and some 70 to 80 clubs. Today, sadly, only around five clubs remain.