COLERAINE is stirring with new activity.

In the last 12 months, several sporting clubs have achieved great wins, new businesses have opened, tourism boosters are in the works and families have joined the town.

The Spectator hit the street to find out what the past year has brought and what this year could bring.

Team spirit thriving

BOTH the Coleraine Field & Game club and the Coleraine Rope Quoit Association clubs held Australian championships in the last 12 months, and both came away with winners from their own clubs.

Coleraine District Development Association (CDDA) president, Mary-Ann Summers, said the town recognised both with awards on Australia day for their “great, awesome effort”. 

“Both of those two clubs had award winners within their clubs which is great,” she said.

“It’s a huge effort to put on such a thing for an Australia-wide competition and then also to be able to compete and win your section as well.”

On top of that, the Coleraine Football Netball Club’s senior men’s team, the Maroons, won the South West District Football Netball League’s grand final last year, really lifting the spirits of the town.

Events like the annual Australian Pedal Car Grand Prix in Coleraine are another highlight for the community.

Ms Summers said the CDDA had been a wonderful way to be involved with such a beautiful population since she moved to Coleraine three years ago.

“The reason I came is I like working in small towns, they have a really great air and they are very supportive - since moving in I have always been made welcome.”

Businesses growing

PAUL Bosch owns the Coleraine IGA supermarket, and said sales increased during COVID and have continued to grow as more people have chosen to shop local.

“Coleraine is vibrant, it is good, we’re up on last year for trade,” Mr Bosch said.

“We have talked to different reps that come through the industry and they are saying that the cost of living has bitten on a lot of businesses.

“There are towns that are down on last year, they’re still going alright, but they’re not holding on last year’s figures so we’re happy that we’re up 10 to 15 per cent on last year.”

He said that things were up across the board; farmers have had a good few years, the football club is in a really good position financially too, and the container deposit scheme’s arrival behind the IGA has also generated funds for community groups in town, as well as more foot traffic for stores.

“As far as the future goes for Coleraine it is quite solid. If I was investing my money into business I’d be happy that it’s invested here,” Mr Bosch said.

Canvas and compassion

STOREFRONTS are filling up on Coleraine’s main street.

Retired veteran and Hamilton local, Danny Bland, opened a new heavy sewing store specialising in canvas stitching last year.

His naval background trained him in creating waterproof coverings for ships on the high seas,

This venture is more of a retirement business – his military pension keeps him going but ‘DB’s Sew n Stitch’ “merely gives me something to do, somewhere to be and a sense of purpose which is the most important thing.”

Mr Bland has been a long-time member of the Hamilton RSL, and currently presides as its welfare officer. His workspace includes comfortable seating for guests, primarily military veterans to wander in and connect while he works.

“If someone needs space to come and be for a while and just chill, they can come down here and have a coffee, then we can chat about where they are in the world and what we can do and work out a plan for them. This is just a place where veterans can come and hang out if they want to.”

“The town has been amazingly supportive; I have loved that fact about it. I can come down here, I have my dog, I have my cat - where else in Australia could I actually do this? I actually like Coleraine better than Hamilton.”

Mr Bland knew he could expect backing from the town, that is one of things that drew him to open his store in Coleraine.

The upcoming reopening of the town blacksmith, and the National Hotel, is currently on all businessowner’s minds.

The smithy will draw tourists for its bespoke blacksmithing courses once restored, while the hotel is due to bring back accommodation to the town and be a tourist attraction in its own right.

Mr Bland said they will be a boon for the town’s businessowners and hopes his store’s aroma of leather, oil and canvas will attract road-weary dads like moths to a flame.

“I see this as a little tourist hotspot because of the chocolate factory,” he said.

“The fantastic thing will be once the blacksmith is up and running I can knock up bags so when people come and do their bit of blacksmithing, they can come down to me and pick up a bag someone made for them.”

New café supported

STEP inside Whyte Street’s new café and you will find dad, Jason Alexander, behind the coffee machine, mum, Katya Pearsall, creating in the kitchen, and son, Liam Alexander, smiling behind the counter.

Mr Alexander and Mrs Pearsall went into business for themselves in their hometown after four years training different Mobil stores to make hot food. Liam has helped them get started and together the family has started KJ’s (named for Katya and Jason) six months ago.

“We took a gamble,” Mr Alexander said.

“It was scary at first because you put a lot of money into these things and wonder if you are going to make a bang - because we are the third café in Coleraine, plus the Mobil, and we all do hot food.”

But the encouragement from the town has been immense.

“Being a small community, The Catching Pen come in here, they’ll buy from us and we go and buy from there,” Mrs Pearsall said.

Mr Alexander agreed.

“Its funny to see that one week they will support us, one week, they will support The Catching Pen, and Cambo’s, they support us all. They do not want to lose this,” he said.

Liam is happy holding off on his own goals for the moment, especially if it means spending time with his parents.

“They have done really, really well for themselves to be able to jump up and do this,” he said. “So, I could not be any more proud of my parents.

“I have a van and we are going to do the van up and I’m going to travel to Perth. I’ll wait until they’re steady on their feet, and then I’ll just roll off,” he said.

“It was fate, because Liam was here from the word ‘go’, without him we couldn’t do what we do,” Mrs Pearsall said.

They are also looking forward to the reopening of the blacksmith next door, and the National Hotel.

“It will put Coleraine on the map a little bit,” Mr Alexander said.

“With the National opening, they’re going to have rooms available. That’s going to be better for our town because there is nowhere to stay at the moment.

“Anything like this will be positive towards the town, we support it, we will work with them and do the best we can to support them, just like I am sure everyone else in the town will be.”

A new doctor in the family

AMY Marshall has joined the Coleraine Family Clinic as their new doctor just a few weeks ago and was already feeling right at home. 

“Everyone has been so welcoming, all of the patients and people generally around town have shown lots of gratitude but I think the gratitude really comes from my end. It’s a beautiful town, picturesque,” Dr Marshall said.

“I am very blessed to work with such experienced staff at Coleraine who have been especially chosen to work in the community. We have certainly been made to feel right at home and very happy – there is even great coffee and a beautiful swimming pool in town.”

Dr Marshall has brought her three-year-old son, Zanda, with her; he started kindergarten in Coleraine this year.

Coleraine Family Health is a satellite clinic of Dr Try Medical Clinic in Mt Gambier, so they are commuting daily until they find a house in Coleraine.

“I love rural medicine for the variety and the opportunity for connection just brings so much more meaning for my life,” she said.

“I always felt privileged to grow up in the country and now I can do the same for Zanda and hopefully give back a little of the generosity these communities offer.”

Ms Marshall started her career as a journalist at the Warrnambool Standard, and followed that across the country and around the world before she left media behind and moved to Perth to begin her medical studies.

“I studied a Doctor of Medicine at the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle and did a year of Rural Medical School in Geraldton and also spent time in Arnhem Land and the Kimberley,” Ms Marshall told The Spectator.

“I am training to be a rural generalist with the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine … a speciality that adds specialised rural medical training to general practise training.”

Dr Marshall said it was her time in Uganda, Africa that crystallised a desire to go into healthcare.

“It was a four-month stint I did there doing some media for a non-profit organisation, mainly volunteer work,” she said.

“They were a locally based organisation that did work in their own community, starting up schools and microfinance programs for women, and preventative health care.

“It definitely confirmed to me that healthcare and community work was something I wanted to get involved in.”

That life-changing experience led her to where she is today, starting a new chapter in Coleraine.