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Grenfell Economic Development - Open Day

Annual Open Day.

OCTOBER 25th 2008

We are inviting people to our beautiful heritage town to see whether we can assist you to move to Grenfell. Visitors to the Open Day will be treated to a glimpse of “Life in Grenfell” showing potential residents and new businesses what is on offer in the district.

When you come to Grenfell as registrants at the Open Day you are offered up to $50 petrol and a $25 gift voucher for purchases. If you relocate here we can offer 12 month’s free rates. Additional incentives are offered to skilled trades people.

Saturday 25th October: Potential residents will be greeted on arrival and after registering they will be treated to a free guided tour of the town and its facilities.

At the end of the tour, visitors are welcomed to a “Meet and Greet” session to meet the Mayor, local residents and business leaders.

To register for the Grenfell Open Day or for further information on the Open Day please use the form below. For more information please contact the Economic Development Officer on 02 6343 2855 or

Here's what the Grenfell Record had to say about the success of the 2008 Open Day.

Open Day a big hit
29/10/2008 10:12:00 AM

Clowning around and having a great time at the St Joseph’s School Fete and the Open Day “A Current Affair” live broadcast from the school were (l/r) Carl Peterson, Linda Wood, Cindy White and baby Madison.

Grenfell held it’s much-acclaimed Open Day last Saturday to the delight of the hundreds of visitors who flocked to the town for the event. A lot of public interest was created nationwide when the Prime TV show “A Current Affair” came to the town a few weeks ago to investigate and report to a very curious nation.

As a result of this timely intervention by the national broadcaster thousands of phone calls were received by the council who passed on all enquiries to the relevant businesses.

This alone was enough to raise the profile of any country town to a level not possible, given the limited resources available to a community of some two and half thousand residents.

However, “A Current Affair” then decided, unsolicited, that they would return for a follow up and arrived in town last Friday to broadcast live to the nation from St Joseph’s School Fete.

Needless to say, there was a multitude gathered in the school grounds last Friday to welcome the TV crew to the “best little town in the west”.

In fact, if the guys return one more time it is just possible that they will be made honorary citizens.

Anyway, the night was huge and the enthusiasm was extremely palpable, which was a good omen for the weekend.

And so it was. All day Saturday saw the Main Street thronged with locals and visitors alike.

The Open Day weekend draws were well patronised with crowds spilling out on to the street with the Mayor, Maurice Simpson, and Councillor McClelland having to struggle to get their voices heard, even with the help of a PA, as they read out the winning tickets.

The “Back to Grenfell” draw was only slightly less chaotic. Fantastic.

Despite all of this hoop-la though, and the spending up big in the Main Street by all the visitors, the main purpose of the weekend, which was to attract new settlers, was a great success.

Despite the naysayers, who always seem to inhabit the dark corners of any community, several houses had been sold leading up to the weekend and one more house has been sold since along with two blocks of land.

Other figures include the fact that some 30 families travelled to Grenfell including a family from Melbourne with four kids and another with two kids arriving from Queensland. The remainder came from NSW.

The businesses who operated a street stall for the day also reported Festival type revenues.

The other salient point to be made is that this year’s event had more focus on young families that saw fewer retired people making up the registrants.

The entertainment was also popular with the jazz band winning many accolades along with the all-day 2LF live broadcast from Main Street.

To top off a truly magical weekend, there are still many families who couldn’t make it for various reasons, including illness in the family, that have promised to still make the trip and inspect the town with a view to purchasing a home.

The other great accolade flowing from the weekend’s visitors is that they now realise that “A Current Affair” was not exaggerating when it described Grenfell as the “friendliest town in the west”.

And we are.