Woorndoo
Woorndoo is a tiny locality in a lovely riverside location.
Salt Creek carves its way through the landscape from Lake Bolac before merging with the Hopkins River to the southwest.
This is sheep country, mainly producing high-quality Merino wool, and productive farmland for broad-acre crops (canola, wheat and barley).
Woorndoo has some of the most significant native grasslands in Victoria, thanks to a community landcare group dedicated to native grassland restoration.
Around 160 people live in Woorndoo, including 44 families. School buses travel to Mortlake (23km away), Lake Bolac and Hamilton, and there is a shire-run preschool and childcare at Chatsworth, 15 minutes up the road.
Sport is the social superglue of this tightknit community and the impressive recreation reserve the town hub, home to the Woorndoo Tigers football-netball club and the cricket club. The sports ground is abuzz on Saturdays when home games are played and anyone is welcome on Thursday evenings year-round for a meal, cooked by volunteers.
Woorndoo lost its general stores and post office years ago, their buildings now private residences, and the former church is being given a new lease of life.
Property rarely comes on the market, however, so potential buyers need to be extra vigilant.