Terang production takes audience back to Ecklin's general store

Terang's Marie Ewing has fond memories of growing up there, living behind the general store that was run by her dad and uncle for 50 years.

The general store was the lifeblood of the community. It burnt down in the horror Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983 but long-time owners John McKinnon and his brother Bill rebuilt it, giving the community back its town centre.

The store was more than just a place to buy petrol or a carton of milk. It was a place where locals could stop and have a chat over a cup of tea and the owners were only more than happy to lend an ear.

Next Saturday, Terang Civic Hall will be the place to throw on your "glad rags" and take a trip down memory lane to remember the highlights as well as the lowlights of life in Ecklin South.

"It's not quite like Camalot. It's really just remembering that there was a place that had this vibrancy and such a close connection," Marie said.

The production - A Store of Memories - will be a real family affair with two of Marie's 10 children and three of her sisters joining a cast of about 20 to help her re-live the past.

The script was written by her son, William, and Warrnambool-based Peter - a musician who has recently returned to live in Warrnambool after four years spent in the LA music scene - will play the role of Bill.

Peter said the play centred around the goings-on of the community through the lens of the old general store - covering the bustling 1950s era through to the late 1990s when Bill passed away and the family's time at the shop came to an end.

"It is a time capsule," Peter said.

"We track the trials and tribulations of the area. It goes from milking cows and playing footy to the Ash Wednesday bushfires, to the premiership that the team won and the club folded," he said.

Music was a big part of life at Ecklin South, and family members have written original songs just for the show which has been years in the making.

It was initially planned for April 2020 and now, after a two-and-a-half-year delay caused by the pandemic, they are finally able to bring it to the big stage.

"We've had to shelve it. I've had people die who I'd interviewed and were looking forward to coming to the show which is really sad," Marie said.

With the words "come with me on a journey", the play takes the audience back out to Ecklin South.

And it is Ecklin South, not Ecklin, Marie said. "Bill was very specific about that. And there is no Ecklin North," she said.

An old-time orchestra playing live music will recreate the famous broadcast balls of the 1960s.

"It's going to be a big night. Get dressed up in your glad rags because we are having the broadcast ball in it so that means people are going to be able get up and dance to a couple of songs, a bit of audience participation. The balls were a big deal," Marie said.

"The radio station, they'd come out to the hall. They'd interview all the people of importance, like the football club president, the belle of the ball. This would all be broadcast. You could listen to it during the week on 3YB or 3CS."

Marie's father was a musician in the McKinnon Dance Band, which would play at all the local dances. "He was really embroiled in that social life. My mother was a singer," she said. Marie and her siblings were trained to sing and would perform at weddings and concerts.

Staging the show was her dream, she said. "This was an opportunity, really an indulgence, but an opportunity to use it to bring something together about this special little place. All my life in Ecklin we had the shop," Marie said.

"I'm one of 12, so there is a big extended family. My father is one of 11 so you can imagine out there at Ecklin everyone knew everyone.

"I grew up there but very privileged in a way that we had this big extended family."

Her family's links to the area started in the 1930s when her grandparents Cathrine and Jim McKinnon moved from Mount Warrnambool to Ecklin South. "They had to move because they had a big family," Marie said.

They were able to rent land from the uncle of Sir Robert Helpmann - the famous Australian ballet dancer, director and actor.

"They just used to think he was marvellous because he was very good to them," she said.

When it came time to sell the property, the owner came to them. But they didn't know if they could afford it.

"He dropped the price because he wanted them to have it," Marie said.

"My grandmother said 'we've got nothing, we've got nothing to lose'."

The play also goes further back in time to touch on the Indigenous history. "We're trying to bring in something from before, a snapshot and time capsule of this 50-year period and then looking to the future," Peter said.

The play also deals with trauma - from suicides to the Ash Wednesday bushfires which razed the store and their family home down the road. "My father and brother and my sister-in-law were in the house and they had to run from the house and into the dairy and then they had to be in and out of the dairy to escape the flames," she said.

"But the house just exploded behind them.

"I just had a three-week old baby and I was going to my dad's place that day because my wedding dress was still hanging in the cupboard there and I thought I'd better go get that.

"It was such a terrible day I didn't want to take the baby out in the heat. Thank God I didn't."

Marie has spoken to many of the bushfire victims to prepare for the play.

"We focus a lot on the fires. We look at how the community banded together during that time," she said.

The general store was not just a place to get milk and bread, for many it was a place to have a chat.

"There were hard times out there," Marie said. "People used to come in there and tell their story."

It was often over a cup of tea that people would talk through their problems. "A couple of occasions they had people come to the shop late at night and talk and talk and then go home and take their life," she said.

The store was also robbed a number of times, and on one occasion John and Bill went to court for the hearing.

"At the court appearance they were wearing the actual jumpers that they'd stolen from the shop. Bill said 'and they looked quite good in them too'," Peter said.

"There were quite a few funny stories like that," Marie said. "The store ran for 50 years."

Marie's dad sold the store in 1999 after had Bill passed away. It stayed open for a few more years before it closed.

"You drive through Ecklin now and think 'what the heck? There's nothing here'," Peter said.

But as the song from the show goes, Marie said: We're Going to Bring the World to Ecklin Because it Means the World to Us. Tickets for the play, which will be held on November 12 at 7pm, can be purchased online or at Reicha's.