Fifty-six years after their last visit, three siblings have returned to the tiny wheatbelt town of their childhoods, with a projector in tow and a plan to wow their former community with historical photos shone onto local silos.
Veronica Connors and her brothers Rob and John Koch travelled from Brisbane to Minnipa on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula last week — on a trip down memory lane.
Veronica Connors, John Koch and Rob Koch lived in Minnipa for a year in 1968. (Supplied: Veronica Connors)
The family lived in the town for just one year in 1968 but the siblings said it was one of the best years of their life.
"Everybody knew each other, everyone was friendly," Ms Connors said.
"They welcomed us, strangers from Adelaide, city slickers … with open arms.
"There was a lovely sort of spirit there that embraced newcomers."
The Koch family in Minnipa in 1968 with their father John Koch. (Supplied: Veronica Connors)
Grain silos dominate the town of just 174 people and are a testament to the area's reliance on farming.
And it was the silos that first brought the Koch family to town, with their father John Senior chasing agricultural work.
"Dad was a carpenter in Adelaide, and he heard there was work on the silos in Eyre Peninsula," Rob Koch said.
"Somehow, we all packed up and headed up to Minnipa and Dad got various jobs … for local farmers and others around the Minnipa area."
So it was a full-circle moment when on a starry spring evening last week, John Koch Junior ran seven extension cords across the high street from the pub and propped a projector onto a seat.
An image from the opening of the Minnipa RSL gates in the 1950s was projected as part of the show. (Supplied: Veronica Connors)
Giving back to the community
It was an ad hoc set-up to celebrate the town's history, as the siblings projected images from residents old and new on the silos.
The project was the brainchild of John Koch Junior, who is the youngest of the siblings and an amateur photographer.
"They were a magnificent family just giving back to Minnipa for their time that they'd had here," Minnipa publican Helen Coles said.
"The old saying is country people are just so friendly. And I think when people do leave, you do hear that they still love Minnipa."
Ms Coles shares the Koch family's affinity with Minnipa — she purchased the pub in 2022 after passing through and falling in love with the community.
The Koch family also photographed Minnipa residents and projected their images onto the silos. (Supplied: Veronica Connors)
She said the community hoped to take the projection project forward, as the Koch family intended.
"With so many silos around the Eyre Peninsula as blank canvases, this idea could be something that could really take off, because it's like you've been immortalised, even for a few seconds, and just remembered in larger than life," John Koch Junior said.
"It was an amazing experience — my hope was that we would actually be able to leave some sort of a legacy that would hang around for a long time in that township of Minnipa."