A chopper buzzes overhead making a journey from Tumbarumba to Tooma. Inside is a movie crew headed up by West Wyalong farmer Ross Harmer who is in the business of sharing rural narratives.
ROSS Harmer is interested in the history of everything. Everything from the Sunshine Harvester to the longevity of the Tumbarumba Rodeo Club.
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He is a walking treasure trove of information. And his interests don’t discriminate. Mr Harmer can talk just as comfortably about the roles Clydesdale horses played in sowing and stripping crops in the Riverina or wax lyrical with champion cowboy Brad Pierce for an upcoming title called Aussies In the Saddle.
And he has the ability to dig up valuable snippets of information that could easily be forgotten about in the current digital age.
His followers probably don’t subscribe to Netflix or stream music and movies. They tend to be people who want to have their own snapshot of history.
And the way Mr Harmer sees it, if this history wasn’t unearthed and put on DVD, the memories could have been lost.
His supporters want to remember what the Riverina and southern NSW was like hundreds of years ago. And they are keen to celebrate the “good times” from a vibrant agricultural sector.
Mr Harmer jokingly claims that he has sourced footage from an old dumpster of a television station and he is a regular face at the archives.
His passion – come occupation – takes him literally from the dumpster to the helicopter, and that is no joke.
But the movie making interest and insatiable appetite for history grew from his grounding as a farmer at “Strathnoon”, in the West Wyalong district.
After taking over the reins of the property from his parents Fred and Heather he began focusing on an Angus cattle operation complemented by winter crops.
“I always loved the stories my father would tell around the campfire,” he said. In the tough times – and when feed was scarce – it wasn’t unusual for him and his father to have a mob of sheep on the road. Or the long paddock as it is known among drovers.
“He would tell me stories as we were walking around looking for feed, and he would remember the old days,” he said.
Like many people in rural and regional areas giving back and volunteering is a big part of life. Mr Harmer took a keen interest in the West Wyalong Show Society and was president during the event’s centenary year.
The timing, for him, couldn’t have been better. It was a chance to collect memorabilia for the society and reflect on the region’s history.
This was possibly the start of what is now known as West Wyalong Movies. Mr Harmer tracked down this footage and set about recording it and putting it on DVD as a historic record.
It also provided a platform to establish connections with people who had skills in the film industry and to learn the ropes of what is often a highly-technical craft.
He produced the first movie in 2008 and now has an impressive collection of 19 titles. The titles are diverse and range from the history of rice growing in the Riverina through to exploring the backgrounds of individual southern NSW townships such as Temora.
It is expected, the current project, Aussies In The Saddle, will be released later this year. The movie is set to cover the history of saddle horses and touches on the success of well-established Rodeo Clubs like Tumbarumba and the committee’s reputable horse-breeding program.
Mr Harmer said he was also intrigued to share the story of Brad Pierce – an Australian champion cowboy – who had also enjoyed success overseas in the upcoming movie.
It is work like this that he is confident will do well. He knows it has an audience who are keen to reminisce and learn about the old and the new.
I have often said that the local newspaper is the diary of a community.
- Ross Harmer
However, he confesses to feeling “embarrassed” back when he ordered 500 copies of his first title.
He was worried the DVDs wouldn’t sell. That people might not be interested.
“They sold in less than four weeks … now we have produced more than 12,000 copies.”
“And people are interested … we have people who have bought all 19 DVDs, I call them groupies,” he laughed.
Mr Harmer said his inspiration comes from many sources.
And his father, who is now 91, certainly plays an important role in his enthusiasm for history.
“The biggest source of information is newspapers, and when Trove (an online archive tool) was put into my hands by a research friend, finding information became so easy it was laughable,” he said.
“I have often said that the local newspaper is the diary of a community.”
Mr Harmer took his movies to the 2016 Henty Machinery Field Days.
The West Wyalong Movies site was located near the working displays of vintage machinery.
He said the interest was overwhelming, and he could never have anticipated how many people would be interested in having their own slice of rural history from southern NSW.
“It is nearly always the older generation that buy my DVDs,” he said.
“I think they are buying them so they can remember a time in their life that they once knew.”
Mr Harmer is well aware of the constant growth in online movies and the popularity of streaming. Despite the internet age he believes capturing history on DVD has preserved it for future generations.
“If we hadn’t made these movies I often wonder how much of this would have been lost … maybe thrown away,” he said.
For him archive footage in a dumpster is more precious than gold.
And he is certainly not too proud to search for it, reproduce it and share it with the masses.
- To win a copy of The Temora Reels produced by West Wyalong Movies email nreynolds@fairfaxmedia.com.au and include “Temora Reels” in the subject line. Be sure to include your name and address in the body of the email. The winner will be drawn on April 26.