Residents farewell frozen bread and long-life milk as supermarket opens

The promise of a good, soaking rain is usually enough to put a smile on faces in the New South Wales region of Riverina, known as Australia's food bowl.

But last week people in the region's town of Urana had another reason to grin from ear to ear.

After more than four years of living in a food desert after the town's only supermarket burnt down, shoppers lined up at 8am to be the first through the door of a new store where they could buy groceries close to home.

Patrick and Natasha Bourke, affectionately known by locals as Pat and Tosh, have refitted their agricultural business to bring a supermarket back to the town.

Mr Bourke was the town's mayor when the IGA supermarket burnt down in April 2022, and said the couple had held off before deciding about 12 months ago to start the groceries business.

"When you have a hospital, doctors and chemist, you have to have a supermarket," he said.

"It's part of the merry-go-round that creates the local economy."

Mr Bourke was concerned about the town's growth without the supermarket after some real estate transactions were withdrawn.

"Some sales have fallen by the wayside because there's no supermarket and that opportunity to have food locally," he said.

A tough four years

Resident Fiona Edwards had given up hope of ever having another supermarket in Urana.

Before the new store opened, the closest supermarket was an IGA about half an hour away in Lockhart.

But many of the 1,300 residents of Urana travelled an hour to Corowa, or further to Wagga Wagga and Albury, to access larger supermarkets.

Ms Edwards said record fuel prices had exacerbated cost-of-living pressures for the community.

"People can't afford it if they're on the dole or on a pension. They just can't go," she said.

Ms Edwards said some residents who could not drive found it difficult to stock their household, especially if they had to catch public transport.

"Half the time the bus driver won't let them put their groceries on the bus,"

she said.

"I've got an old lady who lives across the road. I take her once a fortnight to shop ... and I always buy extra in case she runs out."

Despite being a prominent wheat-growing area, residents often could not buy bread in the town.

"We were buying bread and putting it in the freezer," Ms Edwards said.

"Living on long-life milk. If I got fresh milk, it went out of date."

Wheat farmer Sam Mallon said it had been strange that residents had to make do with bread deliveries coming only three times a week at the local cafe.

"It's a bit of an issue. We've got plenty of grain around but no products to buy," he said.

"Not many towns get a reopening [after losing their supermarket] and we're so lucky Pat and Tosh have come in."

Resident Ralph Emery said the impact on his life had been substantial.

"One day a week I couldn't work, I'd have to go shopping," he said.

"We've purchased a lot of frozen meals and changed our diet because there's not much home cooking."

Catherine Kaye has never known Urana to have a supermarket in the three years she has lived in the town, and said going without the service further illustrated the divide between city and country.

"It does make you feel like the country is forgotten," she said.

"We supply food for the rest of the country, but no-one wants to supply food to us."

Branching out to other communities

Ms Kaye said she was not surprised one of the big supermarkets had not invested in the town to bring the service back.

"I'm certainly willing to pay a local a little bit more money than some multi-billion-dollar corporation that's going to price-gouge me every week,"

Ms Kaye said.

Ms Bourke said the new supermarket would also service the towns around Urana with deliveries, and the Bourkes had hired new staff including a full-time driver to facilitate them.

"With harvest and things like that they find it hard to leave town, so it's important to offer that service," she said.

Mr Emery, who had been counting the 1,553 days since the supermarket burnt down, said getting the service back had revived the community.

"This town would have been dead," he said. "It's magical what it's doing to the town."