Mailors Flat is the region's wealthiest postcode

BLINK as you drive through Mailors Flat and you might miss it, but the people living around the tiny rural hamlet have claimed top spot on the south-west's rich list. New statistics released by the Australian Taxation Office yesterday reveal the postcode of 3275 boasted the highest average income in the 2006/07 financial year. The report provides the latest break-down of south-west residents' incomes. It reveals those in the Mailors Flat area earned an average of $56,259 before tax in the 2006/07 financial year.It is home to the Warrnambool Airport, a general store, an antique dealership, a drilling contractor and an engineering firm. But it is believed the small "tree change" landholders in the area have bumped up the area's gross earnings to more than $6.5 million. Mailors Flat was followed by Yambuk with a mean income of $47,562, before Portland on $46,854 and Caramut earning $45,130. Macarthur came in on the bottom of the rich list, with an average income of $35,553, just below the people of Purnim on $35,751.Mailors Flat had only 115 taxable individuals and 50 not paying tax in 2006/07.Bernie Murrihy, who has run Mailors Flat Antiques for 16 years with his wife Maureen, was puzzled by the town's high ranking."I can't see where the other high income earners are," Mr Murrihy said. Mr Murrihy's business collects and sells antiques from Geelong to Horsham and Mount Gambier.His son Brant runs a demolition business on the same site. "We sell sideboards maybe worth $5000 to $7000 - they're big money items." Local resident and Moyne Shire councillor Jim Doukas suggested the reason Mailors Flat was nearly $10,000 above the second-highest earning area was that many locals ran successful businesses in Warrnambool. "A lot of people who move to Mailors Flat have come out there for the lifestyle, because it does cost a bit to move out here and buy a two-acre block," he said. "It's becoming an exclusive suburb, you could say." Large-scale farming enterprises were no longer a source of high incomes in the area, he said. "I can't think of any 3000-acre blocks around Mailors Flat." The area's relatively small population, with few low-income earners in the area, would also have contributed to the high average, Mr Doukas added. When asked if he was proud to live among such affluent company, the "small-time beef farmer" was quick to point out the top-ranking was not a result of his earnings. "I would think it would be lovely if I was one of them," he said. "I'm disappointed that I pull the average back," he laughed.