08/06/2026
The state of Community
I’ve lived in Toodyay and the surrounding area for about 15 or so years now and one thing that has always stood out to me is just how active and close the people who live here are, it’s infectious and the real sense of community is one of the reasons that I love it here. In ancient times, human beings gathered together for safety and survival. We shared our food, our resources, and looked after each other’s children. We had to trust one another or perish. Over the millennia we developed agriculture, animal husbandry and more complex tools. Early settlements began appearing and our numbers grew our dependence on each other grew also. As life became more complex trades and professions emerged. We needed farmers, builders, bakers, blacksmiths, butchers and countless others. And they all needed each other. We built together, we celebrated together, we worshipped together, and we succeeded together. Community is the backbone of our civilisation.
Toodyay is truly a community of communities, from Toodyay town to Coondle, from Julimar to Morangup, Culham to Dumbarton and everywhere in between. And like our ancestors, we also build together, celebrate together, worship together and succeed together.
The four weeks between early April and early May are an amazing example of that community I’ve come to love. Toodyay Volunteer Fire and Rescue held their annual Easter Egg Hunt and community BBQ which saw over a hundred children and locals turnout for a morning of fun, laughs and excitement, with 400 chocolate eggs being found in mere minutes. On April 25th we paid our respects to the ANZACs, who fought and died to protect the community they loved, with the largest Dawn Service turn out I’ve personally seen with an even larger turnout for the march and main service. As usual, The Toodyay Lions Club put on a stellar breakfast after the Dawn Service, and it was great to see so many turn out for that also. The Moondyne Committee put on its annual Moondyne Festival on the 3rd of May, a massive event months in the making, and again, it was the largest that I’ve personally seen. Between those, we also have our religious events, celebrated by a dwindling but still strong religious community. Naturally there’s Easter, but also Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Ascension Day and Pentecost. It certainly was a busy month or two.
Let’s take a moment now to think of what we’ve lost. If you’re new to town you might think to yourself, “this is great, what a lovely vibe, there’s a Moondyne Festival, a Christmas street party, and the annual Show.” And this is true, but over the last ten years we’ve lost so many other, equally valuable events. The Toodyay Music Fest was a great day out that was sadly lost in 2022 due to dwindling committee numbers and covid-19 regulations. The Toodyay Fibre Festival, a great festival which came about from the ashes of the 2009 bushfire, bit the dust in 2023, again apparently to dwindling committee volunteer numbers (though I couldn’t verify this). Then in 2025 we lost the International Food Festival which was run by the Shire of Toodyay and discontinued for reasons.
Earlier this week, the Toodyay Show Society put out a statement regarding a much more subdued show this year due to a lack of volunteers and committee members. When something has been going for as long as the Toodyay Show, it’s easy to take it for granted that it’s always going to be there, or that the Shire or the Government run it. The truth of these organisations is that they’re run by dedicated people that don’t get paid and remain largely unknown to most in the community. And this is true of most of the amazing things that make Toodyay the town that it is. Moondyne is organised by the volunteers of the Moondyne Festival Committee, the Show by the volunteers at the Toodyay Agricultural Society, and ANZAC Day is organised by the Toodyay RSL Sub-Branch.
It goes further than the razzle dazzle of public events. There are countless unsung legends keeping this town running. They’re the volunteers who drive our ambulances, fight our fires, and look after our elderly and our impoverished. The St John Ambulance Sub-Centre, the Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade, the State Emergency Service, Toodyay Locals Care, Butterly Cottages, the CWA and the Lions Club are all volunteer organisations without which we would cease functioning as a society.
Toodyay is an incredible town with amazing people, attractions and services. A real community. A community resting on the shoulders of a shrinking number of selfless volunteers who give up their spare time to help keep the magic alive. To all those who volunteer their time to make this town what it is I would like to thank you, from the bottom of my heart. We truly are a community made of communities, and I hope that we have generations of building together, celebrating together, worshipping together, and succeeding together ahead of us.
