NOT MUCH has happened at Carwarp since the local store burnt down and the school closed down.
The sleepy locality, best known for its GrainCorp terminal on the Calder Highway, has been a quick blip on the horizon as weary drivers from the south searched for the first touch of green of the irrigation blocks that start just to the north at Red Cliffs.
Not any more. With Olam Australia constructing its $60 million almond processing plant just down the road from Solar Systems’ massive solar power project, Carwarp is now a hive of activity.
Lifelong Carwarp resident Murray Nulty is getting used to the sudden influx of traffic.
“There’s plenty of times I can hardly get across the highway from one block of the farm to another,” he quipped.
Mr Nulty said Olam officials had told him a record 208 trucks had gone down the newly-sealed Carwarp West Road, out to the processing facility, a far cry from the odd grain truck headed down the dusty track the road used to be to empty a couple of field bins.
“It’s amazing the amount of money that’s been spent in the area and how many people there are around,” Mr Nulty said.
Given the lack of residential infrastructure, Mr Nulty doesn’t think the little railway siding will boom into a fully fledged town on the back of the investments any time soon, but said the nearby town of Red Cliffs would reap the benefits.
“We’re only about 10 minutes away from Red Cliffs, that was a key reason why Olam decided to build here, to be close to a workforce, people didn’t want to move further out to Boundary Bend or Robinvale, where the almonds are grown.”
In terms of the solar energy facility, Mr Nulty had little doubt it was in the right spot.
“It hasn’t rained here for about nine months, so there’s certainly plenty of sunlight.
Currently, the dryland farming area around Carwarp is valued at around $300 an acre.
Mr Nulty said local farmers enjoyed a better season last year than their counterparts further west in the Millewa.
He said farmers were relying on that marvelous maxim known as Murphy’s Law to kickstart the season.
“I was speaking to the blokes from the solar energy site and they reckon that’s about to be switched on, surely that will mean it will start raining soon after!”
In spite of its low profile, Mr Nulty sings the virtues of life at Carwarp.
“We’re 10 minutes from a great little town, Red Cliffs and half an hour from a city in Mildura.
“There’s the greenery of the irrigation blocks and the river just to one side of us, and then we’ve got nature with the Hattah Kulkyne national park in the other direction.”
