This tiny, distant city is up on the market for an estimated £5m.
This tiny, distant city, full with its personal normal retailer and petrol station, has 5 residents (Picture: Licola Wilderness Village/ Google Maps)
A complete, and really distinctive, Australian city has been put available on the market for an estimated AUD $10million (£5million), sparking fears for the way forward for its tiny group. The distant village of Licola, tucked away within the rugged Victorian Excessive Nation, 154 miles east of Melbourne, is one in every of Australia’s smallest cities, residence to simply 5 individuals.
Residence to a few weatherboard buildings, a normal retailer, a caravan park and a petroleum station, Licola has lengthy been a assured pitstop for gasoline, meals, and relaxation for travellers on their option to the Alpine Nationwide Park. For over 50 years, this off-grid oasis has been owned and operated by the Lions Golf equipment of Victoria and Southern NSW. Nonetheless, the native department of the Lions Membership has stated it may possibly not afford to run the city and, late final 12 months, quietly listed it on the market on-line, sending shockwaves by way of the area.
Licola was became a camp the place deprived younger individuals and kids might keep throughout college holidays (Picture: Getty Photos)
Discovered on the banks of the Macalister River, Licola was initially a timber mill constructed within the Fifties, with a number of employee buildings. After it closed in 1968, the Lions Membership acquired the entire web site and turned it right into a camp the place deprived younger individuals and kids, and teams with particular wants, might keep throughout college holidays. Close by land additionally hosts Licola’s Basic Retailer and Caravan Park.
Licola is the one city in Victoria fully disconnected from the principle electrical energy grid. The village generates its personal energy by way of a complicated photo voltaic microgrid, treats its personal water, and manages its personal waste.
Right this moment, Leanne O’Donnell, who runs the Basic Retailer, and her household are the one full-time residents of the 42-acre city. She lives there with one in every of her youngsters, alongside together with her finest pal and her two youngsters. Nonetheless, they now face eviction.
“I completely love this city,” she instructed the BBC. “If it will get into the fingers of a developer and turns into one thing that it isn’t, it [will] simply break my coronary heart.”
Ms O’Donnell first realized Licola was headed for the market in January 2025 after which discovered an actual property itemizing on-line for the sale of the city in December, with an asking worth of between AUD$6million (£3million) and $10million (£5million). The sale has been met with intense backlash on-line from locals within the surrounding areas, with one Fb person writing on the Licola Caravan Park & Basic Retailer official web page: “Individuals depend on the shop on the town, and shutting in the course of peak season is stupidity at its finest”.
Different Victorian Lions members wrote to the Lions Village Licola Board, accusing it of appearing with out due course of and session. A web-based petition to avoid wasting the shop, “renew the lease and let Leanne keep”, has additionally gathered greater than 8,000 signatures.
Proceeds will proceed to pay for youngsters to attend camps run professionally throughout Victoria (Picture: Getty)
In an announcement to the BBC, a spokesperson stated the sale was sparked by a overview into Licola’s operations, which was supplied to all Lions in Victoria. After the overview, the board determined it was not sustainable for the Lions Membership to personal the village, with rising prices and insurance coverage costs, ageing lodging and a decline at school and camp attendance listed as fundamental causes.
“The choice to promote was not made frivolously,” the assertion added.
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Chairman Denis Carruthers, in the meantime, stated the board has a accountability to guard the mission of the Lions Village – supporting deprived youth – not simply the bodily house, including: “The Lions District Governors have been briefed and are supportive”. The board additionally stated of their assertion that Ms O’Donnell’s lease “was not renewed with the intention to consolidate income throughout a interval of economic stress”. Ms O’Donnell has been instructed she has to vacate the premises by January 31.
All proceeds from the sale of the Licola properties and future enterprise earnings might be reinvested into a brand new basis, which is able to proceed to fund youngsters attending professionally run camps throughout Victoria, it stated. The way forward for camps at Licola stays unknown at this stage and a deliberate camp for January was cancelled on account of low numbers. In line with Mr Carruthers, nevertheless, there may be “appreciable curiosity within the property”.
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