Morundah, population 20 is the smallest village in Urana Shire, one of five villages just off the Newell Highway.

Urgent action was needed when the picnic races, Morundah’s main fund raising event was in decline.

David Fahey had purchased the Morundah Hotel in 1997. He was a founding member of Morundah’s Tidy Towns committee and became a member of the Carp-a-thon in 1998.

Mr Fahey started looking around for an event which would bring people and dollars to Morundah. Although not knowing anything about opera, he googled the word on the internet.

In 2005 he invited Opera Australia representatives to Morundah to look at the site, a bus shed on a vacant block next to the pub.

The old shed was about four metres too low to stage the opera so they built a theatre, erecting a 12m by 12m and 7.5 m high shed for the stage. An agricultural pig shelter was used to house the audience.

“Opera in the Pig Shed” accommodated an audience of about 540 but has been reconfigured to fit 450 comfortably.

Morundah Bush Picnic Inc presented two performances by Opera Australia’s Oz Opera, Carmen, 2006 and Madam Butterfly 2008. Victorian Opera presented two performances of Cosi fan tutti, 2007; the performances were attended by more than 1,000 people over two nights.

“These events spurred the whole town on, the demographics changed and everyone was having a go,” Mr Fahey said.

Morundah has won a number of Tidy Town awards in 2007 and 2008 and the local Government Cultural award for presenting Cosi fan tutte the same year.

The town park has had a face lift with new gazebo and toilets and public art a feature. A static display of a steam engine and a new war memorial were erected and council has put in kerb and guttering.

This year between 60 and 70 young people from around the region will participate in opera workshops presented by principal director of Victorian Opera Richard Gill in September.

A Gala Concert will be staged on October 10 featuring many of the performers in Oz Opera and Victorian Opera.

Mr Fahey is working with the former chief of Victorian Opera Anne Frankenberg to present a wonderful repertoire of singers.

“A farmer said to me, it was good for families to come to Morundah to enjoy the opera and have a good time instead of the doom and gloom of drought,” Mr Fahey said. “It’s been a real morale booster.”