Farmers in Pinnaroo are well known for growing great crops, including one of the most cheerful looking contributions to agriculture, beautiful bright yellow canola.
The canola was in bloom as I arrived in Pinnaroo, but it was not what was in the paddocks that had brought me to this small South Australian town, just five kilometres from the Victorian border.
I was here with the Back Roads team to see some men about some art.
Pinnaroo has long run a Men's Challenge at its annual show, which is designed to get the blokes out of their comfort zone.
In the past, local blokes have battled it out for the title of best fruit cake and best crocheted coat hanger.
I'd been asked to judge this year's category, best metal floral arrangement, and it was a lot tougher than I expected.
There was a bold sunflower made out of bits of farm machinery. The artist was a shy farmer in a big hat.
Another entry was a bunch of natives inspired by a repurposed colander.
The local school principal had made a delicate copper rose that I'd have been quite happy to accept on Valentine's Day even if it did come with a barbed wire stem.
And that's just a few of the inventive creations.
"It's just to get us blokes out of our comfort zone and make us more in touch with our feminine side," Heath Boseley, who runs the local fertiliser depot and came up with the challenge idea, said.
While Mr Boseley, better known as Bose, jokes the main prize is bragging rights for an entire year, art is taking the small farming community in a potentially ground-breaking direction.
Improving mental health in country areas
In 2020, the local art group contacted Flinders University and offered up the whole town for a first-of-its-kind study to find out whether more art and culture could improve the mental health and wellbeing of an entire community.
Professor Robyn Clark said the research, known as The Pinnaroo Project, was unique.
"It was them reaching out to me. I've never come across anything like it," Professor Clark, who is leading the three-year investigation, said.
The town has since been flooded with more than 30 workshops, including lantern making, leather work, pottery and Indigenous weaving with experts coming from far and wide.
Local hairdresser Julie Wallis, who helped kickstart the project, said the community was keen to make some changes.
"The buy-in has been very good," she said.
"Every workshop that was run has been booked out."
Ms Wallis is also a jewellery designer who has experienced the healing power of art in a very personal way.
"Art has been a huge part of recovering from a tumour in my head," she said.
"You let go of the weigh you down kind of things, and it does give you time to think about the important things in life."
She is excited to see whether it can now help her community and be rolled out to other rural towns around the country.
A third of town suffering with depression
To assess the impact of the workshops, researchers needed to establish a baseline of the community's health and wellbeing.
A variety of health checks were carried out on participants including blood pressure, cholesterol levels and weight.
But with the focus of the research on mental health, volunteers also had to fill out internationally recognised questionnaires that test for depression.
"I think targeting mental health was a good strategy since one-third of the population indicated that they had mild to moderate to severe depression," Professor Clark said.
That's significantly higher than national figures.
According to a 2020-21 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey, more than 43 per cent, or over two in five Australians, have experienced mental illness at some time in their life. Anxiety is the most common mental disorder.
However, it's widely accepted that levels of depression are higher in rural areas than in major cities.
Ms Wallis says the rates don't surprise her "because living on the land is not easy".
And she says it's been even harder for the border community in recent years because of COVID.
One of the most positive and proactive people I met during my stay at Pinnaroo is farmer Giles Oster, who just for the record can make a mean flower out of beer cans.
Ms Oster is also someone who has struggled at times with his mental health.
"I've had some dark days, I've had some challenging times," he said.
"But I'm fortunate and blessed that there's people around me and there's lots of things happening in town now to talk about it."
He is a little surprised to find out one in three people in a town of just over 700 people are also struggling.
"That's a lot of people who need love and care and support and resources.
"That to me emphasises the importance of going to things the project runs."
Taking matters into its own hands
Pinnaroo is gaining a reputation for its can-do attitude.
When the council wanted to flatten the dirt bike track because it was seen as a public risk, a group of local dads rebuilt it.
And when the town's gym was closed due to funding cuts, the community created its own.
It's early days for The Pinnaroo Project with researchers returning in the coming months to re-test participants a year after it started.
But judging by the fact more than a quarter of the town's people put up their hands up to be involved, Professor Clark has high hopes.
"There seems to be something very special about the Pinnaroo community and their willingness to pull their socks up and get themselves going."
Watch Kerry Staight on Back Roads in Pinnaroo on Monday at 8pm on ABC TV or catch up on ABC iview any time.
