Community strength - Bruce Rock Shire wins award for huge effort setting up store after supermarket burns down

When Bruce Rock’s one and only supermarket burnt down in March, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, it was a “tragedy” for the eastern Wheatbelt community. With the closest shop 100km away in Merredin — and pandemic directives to “stay home” — there was a sense of urgency to find an alternative for the tight-knit farming town. Within a week, they had achieved the unthinkable. In 36 hours, the Shire had set up a temporary store in the Shire Hall, employing staff from the burnt down supermarket, and within a week, it was up and running. Nine months down the track, it remains, providing a vital service to the Shire, which last week was recognised with the the Local Government Award at the Resilient Australia WA awards. Shire president Stephen Strange said it was “terrific” to receive the award and commended the local community for its “outstanding effort”. “Considering it’s 2020, the way it’s been and also being a tight water year, some good news in November is fantastic,” he said. “It presented us with a massive challenge and we knew we had to do something very quickly.” “We had floods of calls from around the Wheatbelt as well as the metro area offering help, but with covid-19 we couldn’t take up a lot of those offers, so the locals banded together and got this up and running in a week.” Hindered by covid-19 supply issues, the Shire-run shop started small, but now stocks 1800 different items. Plans are now afoot to build a new supermarket on the site of the old supermarket, with the Shire signing the contract to purchase the land a fortnight ago. Originally, they were hoping to fund the build — which is predicted to come in just under $2 million — with the $500,000 they were granted through the Federal Government’s Drought Communities Program. “Disappointingly, it doesn’t fit the criteria,” Mr Strange said. “However, we can use it for other projects and the money we would have put towards them can be put towards the new shop.” Federal covid support funding, along with a “significant” donation from a local community group and money raised from the Shire’s 3 per cent rate increased will be directed to the build. The Shire will also be appealing to the State Government, which Mr Strange said had been very supportive so far, for a contribution. “We build houses for teachers, nurses and police, which is usually done by the State Government, so we will request that they contribute towards the store off the back of that,” he said.