Tacky marquees, enormous lines trailing from food vans and over-priced beers were not to be found.

But in the town’s church, hall, backyards and billabong, musicians from the slick and experienced to those simply having a crack at something they enjoyed, entertained the crowd.

The second Dirt Music Festival was an event encouraging musicians to perform - for no price - to music lovers across and beyond the Wimmera.

The sounds of strings, keys, skins and songs replaced the noise of lawn mowers and birds that would have had the stage on any other Sunday.

While the event kept clear of labelling headliners, keyboard prodigy Chooka Parker was a big drawcard after becoming famous on Australia’s Got Talent in 2011.

The 18-year-old from Maryborough stunned the audience with his complex compositions and fleeting key changes while sweating away in his now famous Driza-Bone coat.

Country four-piece Archer and the Long Gone Daddys played originals as tight as their trousers and Maria Forde’s sweet Irish melodies drew accolades from all sections of the crowd.

Horsham guitarist and songwriter Curtis Why has doggedly pursued a music career for decades, but between treks to and from gigs in Melbourne he dropped into Rupanyup.

Why’s talents were honoured with calls from the crowd to play his own tracks punters enjoyed at last year’s festival.

It was a far cry from the usual rural request of Khe Sanh.

With entertaining, intriguing and often puzzling lyrics - at one stage exploring the relationship between a cat and a tree - and catchy guitar licks, Why was all class and something special to experience with a dozen others in camping chairs on a lawn.

With somewhere between 10 and 60 people at each gig the festival managed to meet its ethos inspired by a quote from Tim Winton’s book Dirt Music: ”Anything you can play on a verandah, you know, dirt music.”

Horsham’s Wastebusters Recycling and VATMI Industries in Stawell collectively sort kerbside rubbish from Horsham and Ararat rural cities, as well as Hindmarsh, Yarriambiack, Northern Grampians and Pyrenees shires.

Wastebusters director Mick Morris said he was considering not recycling materials, including glass and plastics, because rising electricity costs were making it unprofitable.

“We budget $1000 a week towards electricity, but recent power cost increases mean we’re running well over that mark,” he said.

“The carbon tax will push this price up further, putting us under more pressure.

“We need a solution, because after years of telling people to recycle certain materials we don’t want to be forced to turn around and do the opposite.”

The plant spends about $180,000 a year on freighting recycled materials to buyers in Melbourne.

Mr Morris said the freight cost was one of the plant’s biggest expenses.

“Low value objects such as glass needs to be sorted by colour, which also increases labour costs,” he said.

“Sending a product to landfill saves recycling and freight costs, but that is not something we want to do.”

Not-for-profit disability employment provider VATMI Industries is facing similar issues.

VATMI chief executive Greg Wasmund supported Mr Morris’ call for freight subsidies.

He said without government assistance the business would have to increase the cost of their service.

“Due to contract arrangements we can’t pass on the majority of our costs, so anything to ease our running costs would be beneficial,” he said.

Federal Member for Mallee John Forrest dismissed the idea of a subsidy.

“It’s the government’s ridiculous carbon tax that is hurting these businesses,” he said.

“The tax is not going to save a single polar bear.”

While I did not produce any sausage rolls from 60 out, on the boundary, into a head wind and on my opposite foot, I did manage to pop my shoulder.

I can’t blame it though.

Imagine spending day in day out in the same socket, swivelling about - I would be keen for an adventure down the arm too.

However as anyone who has seen the flick Into The Wild will know, great adventures can come at a poisonous turnip-eating cost.

One of the tendons is torn and a piece of bone is chipped off, currently enjoying some new-found freedom floating about near my bicep.

While I am out for the season, there’s a fair chance the Roos will belt on without me.

For those who do not know, I have the co-ordination of a rooster on roller skates with a similar degree of on-field intelligence.

Yet for a man who started in the twos, keenly warming the pine, I do have skills hiding determinedly up my sleeve.

I provide run, just not that fast, and rarely in the right direction.

I like tackling, which unfortunately was the cause of my shoulder wanderings after trying to stop a large bearded man.

Similar to Damien Cupido I rack up 30 possessions every outing, but unfortunately like the hapless Essendon forward almost all of these disposals occur in the sheds before the game, while smelling the deep heat and pre-game flatulence.

If Geelong superstar James Podsiadly was to suffer the same shoulder saga, he would be irreplaceable.

Lucky for Dimboola, my football worth equates to a Rolex bought from the streets of Bangkok, so I’m sure the real estate I left vacant on the bench will soon be filled.

Now I must find another pursuit to occupy my time during the coming months.

I have always had a cool head for checkers and I can usually put together an uninterrupted season when watching DVDs.

And just the other day my mum drafted a comfortable chair into my hyperbaric chamber, otherwise known as the living room, so despite everything I am set for an exciting recovery.

James Martin, a spokesman for Education Minister Martin Dixon, refused to name any dates or time frames for when Warracknabeal Secondary and Dimboola Memorial Secondary Colleges’ master plans to build new schools would be carried out.

The two schools and Birchip P-12 School are currently being audited for repair and maintenance funding.

Mr Martin said schools funded under the 2012-2013 budget were chosen due to election promises and a ‘whole combination of factors’.

He said the government would provide more information about time frames and schedules after an audit of Victoria’s 1539 schools was complete.

The two schools are among 200 others in the state with State Government-approved master plans.

The government will spend $200-million upgrading school infrastructure next financial year - less than half of what the previous State Government spent anually on average fixing schools from 2007 to 2010.

Mr Martin said the government would keep providing money to maintain facilities at deteriorating schools.

“We need to do these patch-up jobs to make sure schools are still inhabitable because we don’t have the money to rebuild all these schools,” he said.

Member for Lowan Hugh Delahunty said he would keep lobbying Mr Dixon on behalf of the Wimmera schools.

“Due to the tight budget and tough economic times there are a lot of schools with master plans that will be disappointed,” he said

Mr Delahunty said the government could not afford to take money from other areas to boost school infrastructure spending.

“Where do you want us to take it from, health, child services - we need to weigh up our priorities,” he said.

Mr Delahunty dismissed claims that the government overlooked the Wimmera in the budget.

“We spent years of trying and we got funding for Horsham Special School, which was successful,” he said.

“I will keep fighting for these schools, but there are other ministers and schools in the state who also feel their need for a new school is just as great.”

A deluge in December 2011 destroyed livestock worth $264,000 and damaged farm fencing to the value of $2.8 million, hitting farmers in Northern Grampians Shire.

Seven of the 110 farmers affected have received about $1000 from the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements.

But Northern Grampians Shire representatives have lobbied the State Government to ensure farmers receive Category C grants of up to $25,000 for small businesses and primary producers.

A one to two metre wall of water swept across part of Greens Creek farmer Graeme Stewart’s property during the disaster after almost six inches of rain fell in the area within a couple of hours.

He said he was thrilled to hear that only the Prime Minister’s approval was needed before grants were made available to him and other flood-affected farmers in the district.

“It’s great news - the other farmers will be very happy when they find out,” he said. “For the past couple of months I have felt like I’ve been paddling a canoe without an oar.”

He said waiting for the application to be sent to the Commonwealth was frustrating, while residents in Moira Shire and Greater Shepparton City were given access to $25,000 grants within weeks of floods that hit the region in early March.

“If the money is approved I will be able to pay off fencing debts, which will be a huge morale boost after we thought the government had forgotten about us,” he said.

Northern Grampians Shire municipal recovery manager Greg Little believes recent media attention was the catalyst prompting the government to finally submit the application on Wednesday.

“It’s disappointing it has to come to that, but it’s still great news for farmers and businesses,” he said.

Mr Little supported the Council of Australian Governments pledge to review the arrangements.

“When something is declared a natural disaster the amount of assistance should be determined on the level of damage to individuals, not the affected area’s geographical size or how much media attention it receives,” he said.