Bob Brooks can chart the changes he's seen in Forrest by looking out over the town's empty footy oval.
When Bob arrived in the 1970s, the town, which lies in the hinterland behind Victoria's famous Great Ocean Road, had a footy team populated by farmers and sawmillers.
But by the turn of the millennium dairy farms were forced to get bigger or sell up to survive and as native forest logging was phased out, Forrest was losing what was left of the industry it had nurtured since colonisation.
Before the footy team eventually folded in 2015, it was importing players from larger towns to stay alive, Bob says.
Without industry, houses withered on the market for years and Forrest continuously appeared high in the ranks of disadvantaged towns.
"We were a very poor town, we didn't have a very good reputation either in those days," Bob says.
A mechanic-turned-dairy-farmer himself, Bob says he finished milking in 2001, sold off some land and built a bed and breakfast on his property.
It was a sign of things to come.
The land he sold was purchased by "weekenders" he says.
"That's the biggest problem we have in Forrest."
It's nothing personal, but "they don't go on committees", says Bob, who is the captain of the CFA and leads the recreation reserve committee.
"It's hard to get help when you want a working bee. That's the time you really need permanent people in town."
'More or less a ghost town'
John Frizon of Frizon Street agrees. He says when there's too much vacant possession a town risks losing its community and services.
John's family was in the forestry business for several generations, and like most of Forrest, the street he lives on was named after sawmillers.
When he returned in the early 2000s Forrest was "more or less a ghost town", he says.
"You could almost fire a cannon down the main street, nobody would be hurt."
Town revival
Now, Forrest's fortunes have changed. "It's going gangbusters," John says.
"The ideas had to come from outside, because if you're in a small town, you tend to get a bit myopic and not see the greater opportunities."
When Matt Bradshaw purchased a dilapidated building on Forrest's main road that simply had "for sale" written on it in spray paint, he says he saw a town full of opportunity.
Matt says the expansion of the Great Otways National Park, road developments and government investment in tourism in the form of Forrest's mountain bike trails were all on the horizon.
In 2012, Matt and his sister Sharon Bradshaw opened a brewery in the town; something that more than a couple of locals thought was a "silly idea".
The brewery is one of several businesses which has turned Forrest from a town passed by on the way to somewhere else to a destination.
Public investment changed the town, Sharon says.
"It brought people into the environment, and they could see how amazing it was because nobody really knew the place, and no-one knew this town."
But tourism and prosperity have brought their own challenges.
Land banking, rising property prices and the rise of weekenders or accommodation businesses are changing the town.
"If we had a more permanent population, a bit of a different kind of demographic, we would have a stronger and more sustainable long-term workforce," she says.
While Forrest's identity has changed, it's still a small town of about 260 people with little in the way of services.
Some locals say the lack of a chemist, a visiting doctor and public transport to the nearest regional centre make life hard for many, especially the elderly.
Balancing needs of locals and tourists
Forrest's renewal has led to the creation of a community-led strategic plan to map the town's future.
"We were aware that the community was changing quite a lot, so we wanted to have a bit of a backbone of the thoughts [about the future]," Sharon says.
Improved infrastructure, balancing the recreational needs of locals and tourists, maintaining a diverse local economy and sustainability are high priorities.
"There were a lot of people who wanted us to stay the quiet, sleepy little town that it was, because that's what they loved about it, and I can certainly understand that point of view," says Gillian Brew, chair of another local project to improve the town's resilience in the face of natural disasters.
Or as one local put it, when the tourists leave at the end of the weekend, "I know the shopkeepers want them all to come back again, but the local people love to see them go home".
Catering for tourism while maintaining a community involves walking a fine line, says Gillian.
A meeting place
Straddling the old and new Forrest is the general store, recently bought by Emily John and Ash Cherawicz.
The two friends and business partners say their business survives on roughly equal support from locals and tourists.
It also doubles as the local post office, making it the one place everyone comes.
During COVID, Ash says they made a real effort to check in with locals.
"Because there's some farmers and people that live here that don't necessarily leave Forrest and this is where they come just to meet and greet with someone," she says.
"In the middle of COVID, they were not having that social network."
Despite the challenges of running a business through COVID and finding staff in a town with almost no rental property market, Emily and Ash, who are part of the town's young arrivals, say they love it.
"It's the best community," Ash says.
"Everyone is so different … but everyone wants to do the best by everyone and we have a lot of people who really participate."
