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The tiny WA town of Narrikup is home to the biggest bat in the Southern Hemisphere and what is believed to be the world’s first-ever cricket bat boundary fence.
It is also now home to a cricket museum filled with signed memorabilia, tucked inside the newly renovated general store.
Former builder Tony Poad has never played a game of cricket and never run a shop before, but he is the driving force behind the town’s unique cricket revival project.
Mr Poad was not a cricket fan when he first moved to Narrikup, a small settlement 380km south of Perth.
He had never picked up a cricket bat or bowled a ball into the nets.
“Probably even worse, I’ve never watched a game of cricket either,” he said.
“I’ve spoken to Dennis Lillee and Tony Dodemaide and Kim Hughes and I didn’t even know who they were originally.”
It was only after Mr Poad’s son started playing for the local team that things began to change.
“When I first moved in here with a couple of kids, the community basically didn’t look sideways,” he said.
“They looked after me and the kids and they got them involved in the cricket club.
“Of course, because I was still driving them around everywhere I got involved with the club as well. It’s just proceeded from there.”
Mr Poad came up with the idea of a boundary fence made from cricket bats after he initially made a gate to honour club life member Chris Norton when he retired in 2011.
The big bat came not long afterwards and earlier this year, Mr Poad purchased the neglected general store with the idea of turning it into a cricket museum.
A few hundred cricket bats later
The Narrikup Cricket Club team had been running through the cricket bat gate for about three years when it was decided to go one step further and build the whole boundary fence in the same style.
“They’re just bats that people were going to throw out or bats that have retired and they’ve just signed them, put their name on, where they’re from, their best score or their worst score,” Mr Poad said.
“We’ve got bats signed by little kids from their first game. They’re damaged but it doesn’t really matter. It all adds character.”
There are 17 bats in each panel of fence, with 26 panels already in place and another dozen or so ready to be installed.
Mr Poad estimates another 2,000 bats are needed to finish what he started.
“It’s getting there but we still have a long way to go. I think everybody [in town] is into it,” he said.
“Tourists have seen it, quite often heard about it on the radio. The whole community is behind it.”
Restoring a 95-year-old building
It was a case of right place, right time for Mr Poad when he purchased the Narrikup Country Store earlier this year.
It had been abandoned for almost a decade, so it took the new owner a few months to get it back in shape.
“I’m not getting any younger in the building trade and I’ve got a few aches and pains,” Mr Poad said.
“When the opportunity came up at the right price, I thought I would grab the bull by the horns and have a holiday, do something new.
“I spent five months getting it back up to scratch, tidying it up and bringing it into the 21st century.”
Signed cricket bats, historic team photos, trophies and memorabilia lines the walls of the museum section of the store.
“It’s going to be dedicated just to Narrikup,” Mr Poad said.
“I’m going to put a display up of the shop’s history and a display up of combined sports — netball and tennis.
“I’ve got a heap of cricket bats that have been signed by Test players and have been donated to us since we started the fence.”
Mr Poad hopes to have bats for sale at the store so visiting tourists can add their names to the famous fence.
From building houses to making coffee
The new and improved Narrikup Country Store was officially opened yesterday, and Mr Poad is hoping for a gentle first day.
“I don’t think I’m going to compete with Woolworths or Bunnings — it’s just a general store,” he said.
“I hope it will become a spot for the community to get together and have a cup of tea.
“It will be more of a meeting place than anything.”
It is a different career path from construction, but Mr Poad has the community behind him.
“It is one hell of a change and it’s a bit scary, but I reckon it’ll work good and the community’s supporting me so I think it’ll be fine,” he said.
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