Farmhouse rental programs are a common method used by many rural Australian towns to attract new residents to live in their communities.
The programs generally involve offering abandoned and often semi-derelict farmhouses for rent at a nominal price, often $1 per week.
As a result, essential services for the area such as education and health are removed or reduced, creating a further, spiralling, population decline.
[4] Similarly, the rural locality of Errowanbang saw its school's population rise above the two teacher threshold for the first time in its history.
[5] In 2011, the ABC produced a documentary following the farmhouse rental scheme of Trundle, "Country Town Rescue".