As you drive down koodoowoodie hill overlooking the rolling hills littered with gum trees and green fields you cannot help but wonder how this quaint small town of Dandaragan only 160km north of perth and situated on a scenic drive between regans ford and Badgingarra can be so secretly hidden from the Brand hwy only minutes away. Dandaragan is the home town of where we are heading to the Redgum vi
llage, public accommodation and function center. Here we will book into a mine style camps ensuited room as we want to spoil ourselves on this trip, even though we know there are budget rooms available as well. While we are here we will be a guest of the family owned establishment and dine in the onsite restaurant. We have heard that the cooks here dish up the best home cooked meals from a variety of daily menues. We wont know whats on offer until we settle in,but we are well informed we wont leave hungry or lonely. We hear the vibe and atmosphere of redgum is well and truly alive and intend to relax amongst it. Upon entering the well sign posted driveway right at the entry of the town we are reminded that this is a working persons camp with a hefty speed bump to keep all vehicles at a snail pace when driving into the main parking area. When you see a couple young kids running across the laneway to the managers residence, this even more enforces the slow down and remember we are in a public arena. We are greeted by a bubbly cheerful lass that welcomes us to the Redgum Village and quickly books us in with a run down on the fire and safety measures in place, once again reminding us of the mine type safety controls in place. Once we are settled in we check out what Redgum has to offer as a business as is and later we will go thru what potential and opportunities this place can evolve into. First up Redgum Village is a Public accommodation, meals and function center business. There are 52 rooms, 95 beds with variations from king single ensuited, double ensuite, single ensuite, single and double non ensuite, family rooms and some bunked bed rooms for backpacking or just cheaper end accommodation. There are two communal kitchens for those that wish to cook for themselves, although after indulging in the set menue dinner, why you would cook for yourself, but some persons / companies do require this option on a tight budget. Each self-help kitchen is well equipped with commercial stainless steel benches and sinks with easy to use large domestic stoves and hot plates, large glass display fridges and freezers. A full complement of pots and pans and each person has the option of a box with plates cutlery and other items for self-cooking and eating. Under the large 20m by 20m terracotta waving sails is a massive 10 burner BBQ, with its own wash-up and prep area, even has a couple gas burners for the boil ups. Also under this paved sailed area is a water feature and fishpond that covers the entrance to the ablution block, all complementing the relaxed area it has been designed for. Away from the self-help areas and we move into the main kitchen dinning area which is really the hub of the Village. When you first enter this building you get a feel that it is a very workmen only cafeteria until you swing by the cheerful cook and are made very welcome. It is a very functional kitchen and the bain-marie displayed meal is in the center of the room, kitchen one end food served in the middle dine at the front end. Being a self-help all you can eat type buffet certainly allows you to choose what you want to eat and how much. It is a set menu although there are always two hot meats and 5 vege’s along with a pasta dish. In the cold bain-marie there is a selection of cooked and cold desserts, all with that unique home-made appearance and flavour. True to form the food is great and plenty of it, this is not a fancy restaurant and you can eat in comfort of casual dress, work clothes or even in your pyjamas if you want too. Footwear and a shirt are required for health reasons. Attached to the dining room is the function center which can double as an extension of the dining area should a large group book in, currently this room is used as a games and relaxation area. There is an awesome bar made out of genuine wagon wheels in one corner, more for display reasons although you can bring your drinks in and sit at the bar. Fancy a game of pool, darts or if only a couple of you get out the ping pong table. Other than that there are comfy bucket chairs to sit in and watch foxtel and just chill. This room would be 15m long by 12 meters wide with a peaked middle roof to give a wide open feel, decked out in timber wall panels and 4 large timber poles, a real country/barn type feel without the hay bales. This 130 person certified public room has been used for wedding receptions, mine training seminars, conference room for business meetings. There is really no limit to what you can use this room for. Outside of this building is a decked area for those warm evenings when you can sit outside and have drink and relax. The manager’s residence is close by so control over noise and any unacceptable behaviour can be quickly extinguished. This residence complies of a transportable configuration with a permanent touch. There are 4 large bedrooms, the master bedroom en-suited with a glass curved shower, double basin vanity unit with the toilet tucked behind the shower out of sight. This bedroom also has a large walk in robe. The other en-suited bedroom is just off the main entrance to the home and is very handy for guests for they can have there own privacy. The other two large bedrooms have a shared bathroom and an electronic play area in between. As there is an onsite commercial kitchen the home kitchen is small and rarely used. Off the small dining area is the added lounge and off that a large office library for the managers own use, away from the Village office. Outside the home office is a BBQ private area with the laundry off one end and the lawn area leading to a basic above ground pool area, surrounded by lush green reticulated lawns from the clear water non smelling bore. On the other side of the residence is the store room for the function room where all sorts of function nick naks are stored. Along side that is the shed with all the tools and maintenance components required to keep the village functioning around the clock. There is a large 30ft caravan under a lean to on the pool side of the residence behind another storage container shed that stores the spare 20 bunk beds and mattresses, readily available when you get that church group of 120 persons in for a private weekend. The caravan/parkhome can be used for onsite staff quarters or a teenage retreat, or even a guest that may require a self-contained unit. Out the back of the Redgum complex there is a large carparking area and upon closer inspection there is infrastructure in the ground for 4 additional 4 person bedroom transportable units, complete with power connection, sewer drainage and water taps. Even the footings for the units are ready to lay out and accommodate the buildings. This is certainly a great option for a large group to come in and add more bedrooms on a 6 to 12 month or even longer contract. There is actually space for up to 15 extra 4 person units and with an arrangement with the neighbouring farmer even more units can be brought in and an unlimited area for waste disposal, keeps the health dpt regulations in sync with what’s required. When MacConnell Dowell were installing the bunbury-dampier pipeline they did exactly that along with there onsite offices and mobile hospital. As you drive up the driveway from the main road there is a large area of vacant land that can easily be transformed into a caravan park. All up I would say there could be 20 bays or a mixture of caravan bays and the caravan park chalets. The Dandaragan shire has suggested a caravan park at Redgum would be a good idea to compliment the transit park in town. This would fill the void of the caravaner passing thru town and the ones that want to bring in their own van when working in a project without wanting camp accommodation. As there are quite a few large projects happening in and around Dandaragan, Cataby and Badgingarra the local shire is opening up some blocks for general housing, a chalet at Redgum would make a good fit for the time to get the family or spouse living in Dandaragan prior to the house being built. They are opening 24 blocks, that’s quite a few houses to build and strengthens the reality that Dandaragan is gearing up for a small population boom. When you look at the attached projects happening in the area already and the ones coming up in the Dandaragan shire planning schemes, it all makes sense. To touch on a few of those proposals are: Iluka opening up a new mine in direct competition to the existing Tronox mineral sands mine. This will consist of an extra 250 plus persons working in the area and as in the present situation with Tronox a lot of these workers are basing in Dandaragan. The already construction phase of the Midwest 330 kva transmission line from perth to Eneabba has opened up proposals for at least two major wind farms close to Dandaragan, two very large solar power farms, taking up hundreds of hectares of space. There is a gas/bio diesel power generation plant proposed at cataby as well. Potash west have been busy sample drilling for fertilizer in the Dandaragan trough and have had very successful results which has encouraged them to start proceedings for an open cast mine to extract the now valuable minerals that were previously deemed not commercially viable. Aside from these projects there is also a large orchard presence between Dandaragan and near-by Moora, this is only getting bigger and the need for backpackers in the seasonal pruning and picking times is only growing. Getting back to the Redgum Village we have pretty much covered what is happening here and what is on the horizon along with potential opportunity. Can the Redgum operate under management? Well yes of course it can, in fact the busier the place gets the more suitable it is for a manager along with the owners being able to be hands on or distance themselves from the day to day activities and concentrate on marketing Redgum and ensuring all the mentioned projects about to come into the area are fully aware of Redgum’s presence. Especially keeping in touch with the associated companies and why they should use Redgum first and foremost. THE Village can operate easily with one main cook and a cleaner with local part time staff available to help out in busy periods. A kitchen hand and a extra pair of hands on bedding change days is always close by. What Redgum also needs is a handyman type maintenance person to fix those leaking taps the odd blocked drain and reset a tripped power switch when a power surge pops along. Speaking of that there is a 3 phase diesel powered back up generator that presently has cobwebs thru it but is there and ready for when that power does cut out. Not so much an issue these days but there if need be. We cant have those main roads guys eating in the dark or the supervisor losing a internet connection that is available along with the Telstra 3G mobile phone reception. When we called into the office to get our docket to connect to the Redgum wifi service we were quite surprised by the 400 plus dvd collection that we browsed thru before selecting a good ole favourite ahead of one of the later release ones, a nice touch we thought. All in all Redgum Village in Dandaragan is a well established working persons home away from home all in one package camp where you can just rock up get well fed plenty hot water and a comfy bed, sit back and relax before doing it all again at work the next day. Plenty of opportunity to expand into other forms of accommodation and enjoy a great lifestyle. Or just own and outsource the management and daily running of the business thus concentrating on markrting to the client you prefer to have on site. A quick look around town and you get the feel of this country town has a lot more to offer. Here is a couple great examples, 3 of the previous local shop owners have chosen to buy in Dandaragan and remain active within the community. The primary school head master whom had travelled the country far and wide retired recently after only a few short years in Dandaragan and has bought a house to remain in the district. The owners form Tasmania of the Regans ford roadhouse recently sold that business and have moved into Dandaragan. Seems to be once you live and work around here you get the bug of this friendly hospitable place and don’t want to leave. Could be the newly laid artificial turf bowling green, the recently refurbished tennis courts, the 18 hole very pictourous golf course, the local club with the green green footy oval and hockey fields. Or maybe the modern primary school, recreation center, or just the fact that Dandaragan is in a oasis of gum trees rolling hills grain fields and cattle dotting the countryside from the Dandaragan organic beef farm or the reopened Dandaragan virgin olive farm. Who knows, who cares, its just a great place to live.
