Communities

West Wimmera, Victoria

About the community

West Wimmera Shire is situated along the Victoria - South Australia border and encompasses 9,200 square kilometres. The shire has a diversity of land use and suitability, business enterprise opportunities, climatic conditions and country lifestyle. West Wimmera Shire is home to the largest concentration of Red-tailed Black Cockatoos in Victoria.

West Wimmera and the Let's Read program

Let’s Read West Wimmera (est. 2014) has been created and delivered through a collaborative partnership led by the West Wimmera Shire Council, West Wimmera schools and the Wimmera Southern Mallee Local Learning and Employment Network. The program covers the entire shire, including the towns of Edenhope, Kaniva, Goroke, Harrow, Serviceton, Dergholm and Apsley.

Community stories

Goroke Magpies 2018

Let’s Read West Wimmera is delivered to all communities in the West Wimmera Shire. As part of the Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN’s work to improve literacy across the region, we supported the establishment of the Goroke Magpies early years program at the Goroke P-12 College. ‘Magpies’ is an early literacy and numeracy development program which engages and upskills parents and children in early years development activities and supports successful transitions to school.

The program has 15 children and lots of parents and grandparents regularly attending. The children’s ages range from 0-5 years old. ‘Magpies’ includes art and craft, play activities, rhyme time, dancing, stories, outside play, singing and puzzles. Goroke Magpies has proven to be a great success, with glowing endorsements from local parents.

‘Magpies is an escape into a magical world of stories, singing, dance and colour that captivates parents as much as it does the toddlers.’

‘Ms Ferguson brings fun and joy to our week, along with essential life skills and early education. We love it’

‘This program is directly in the community I live in making it so accessible and available for myself and my daughter’

Parents of pre-school children visit the school regularly and are building relationships with the Principal and teachers. The children feel right at home in the school environment and this will significantly aid their transition into primary school when the time comes. It is great to see the kids and parents having so much fun whilst learning new skills.

Tim Shaw Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN

November 2019

Kaniva Quest for Books

The Wimmera is at the forefront of a global ‘pop-up’ trend with the creation of pop-up libraries across the region. Let’s Read West Wimmera has set up 17 pop-up libraries in four communities across the West Wimmera Shire.

The Kaniva P-12 College has worked with the Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN and the Kaniva community to create nine pop-up libraries within the town. The College Year 9 Quest class used the project to support the Let’s Read Wimmera program by making books accessible to all families, at all times, at nine ‘family friendly’ venues.

The books can be borrowed and returned to any location where there is a pop-up library. Pop-up libraries are located in waiting rooms, playgroups, cafes, shops, Maternal and Child Health Centres or anywhere that children gather.

It is not vital that books be returned. If they are not returned, we can be content that the books have found a new home and are being used to help another child develop a love of reading. We would like to thank all of the families that have kindly donated their pre-loved second-hand children’s books to the pop-up Library project in Kaniva. Hundreds of books were collected and filled nine pop-up libraries.

The first pop-up libraries were successfully set up in Warracknabeal in 2016 by the Warracknabeal Oral Reading Development Strategy (WORDS) group. There are now more than 108 pop-up libraries situated in 15 Wimmera communities. The Wimmera-wide pop-up libraries are an initiative of the Let’s Read programs set up in the Hindmarsh, Horsham, West Wimmera and Yarriambiack Shires. Pop-up libraries increase community awareness of the importance of literacy development, make books accessible to all families and support the creation of literacy rich environments in our communities.

September 2018

Children's Week, 2016

On Wednesday 28th October 2015, we celebrated Children’s Week at the Goroke Library by holding a Let’s Read celebration.

Let’s Read is a fantastic initiative that promotes the benefits of reading to preschoolers and supports parents with strategies and ideas they can use at home.

Goroke P-12 College teachers and students organised the day and 13 very enthusiastic preschoolers listened to stories, created puppets, completed puzzles and constructed their own stories using felt characters. We finished the celebration with a morning tea that was enjoyed by all those who attended.

The celebration was supported by Goroke P-12 College including the Stephanie Alexander and Advance Programs, the Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN, West Wimmera Shire, Goroke Library and Goroke Preschool.

Children’s Week, 2015

-Katrina and Jack enjoying a book together at the Goroke Library

On Wednesday 28th October we celebrated Children’s Week at the Goroke Library by holding a Let’s Read celebration. Let’s Read is a fantastic initiative that promotes the benefits of reading to pre-schoolers and supports parents with strategies and ideas they can use at home.

Goroke P-12 College teachers and students organised the day and 13 very enthusiastic pre-schoolers listened to stories, created puppets, completed puzzles and constructed their own stories using felt characters. We finished the celebration with a morning tea that was enjoyed by all those who attended.

The celebration was supported by Goroke P-12 College’ including the Stephanie Alexander and Advance Programs, the Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN, West Wimmera Shire, Goroke Library and Goroke Preschool.

Tim Shaw, Executive Officer, Wimmera Southern Mallee LLEN