The quiet and ageing town of Dimboola has had new life breathed into it thanks to the arrival of a former refugee with big dreams.

Despite being the namesake of an iconic Australian play, Dimboola has seen its population dwindle, shops close, and confidence trickle away over recent decades. There is even a line in the play that says, ‘Dimboola is a place you drive through on the way to somewhere else.’

But that has all changed with the arrival of former Cambodian refugee Chan Uoy and his partner Jamie in the town.

The couple has opened the Dimboola Imaginarium, an eclectic and exotic gift shop and Air BnB recently featured in the high-end magazine Conde Nast Traveller. Chan has also recently become the deputy mayor of the local Hindmarsh Shire.

The Dimboola Imaginarium is a stimulating space with a cornucopia of exotic wares, including an almost life-size giraffe, oversize world globes, and colourfully painted rocking horses. The five Air BB bedrooms have differing but exotic and indulgent décor.

They have also launched the Wimmera Steampunk Festival. Steampunk is a global phenomenon that celebrates the subgenre of science fiction inspired by the age of steam but with a retro-futuristic twist.

This year’s festival, the third in five years, is expected to attract 5000 visitors to the town.

“When we first proposed the festival, only about five of the town’s 1600 people knew what we were talking about,” Chan said.

Chan and Jamie came to Dimboola in 2019 looking for a tree change, suffering burnout after working for 20 years in Melbourne’s competitive hospitality and restaurant industries.

“It was a lifestyle choice, but we also wanted to create a new and unique experience for people and to attract people to Dimboola,” Chan said.

“We walked into the old National Bank in Dimboola and knew immediately it was perfect for an Imaginarium. So, we took a risk, and it paid off.”

The Dimboola Imaginarium is the last thing you would expect to find in a town like Dimboola. There is nothing quite like it anywhere.

“I love architecture and history, and the building we found fit the bill. It was a stage for us, and we could turn each room into a different experience,” Chan said.

In November, Chan became a local councillor and deputy mayor.

“The council has a new CEO, and from my first meeting with her, she understood the festival concept and was supportive,” he said.

“Then last year, with some of the older councillors retiring, there was an opportunity for a younger generation to step up.

“People had seen what I had done for the town, and I thought maybe there was more I could do to transform it,” he said.

Dimboola has two councillors on the council, and when it appeared there would be a contest over the placers, it gave Chan pause for thought.

“When we faced an election, I thought it could be confronting and that maybe racism could play a role in the outcome.

“But when the results came through, and I won a majority of votes, I was touched. It represented that change was possible and showed the face of diversity in our community,” Chan said.

Chan and his family arrived in Australia in 1976, fleeing the rise of Pol Pot and the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, which oversaw the deaths of up to two million people through executions and brutal forced labour camps.

“I was born in Battambang. My earliest memories are of going to the cinema – where we had popcorn in paper cones – and I remember my aunties selling noodles on the street. I also remember French baguettes being delivered to our door. We would put sweet, condensed milk on the bread and eat it.

“My family managed to leave early after the Khmer Rouge came, and the country collapsed in 1975,” Chan said.

“We went to Pailin, a town on the Thai border, and, even though I was only five, I remember everyone walking over the mountains to get to the Thai border to escape the Khmer Rouge.

“One night, we almost stumbled across a Khmer Rouge camp. I distinctly remember that ‘stop and fear’ panic because my father had felt it. I also remember having bloodied feet on the track,” Chan said.

Chan and his family spent months in a refugee camp in Thailand.

“My only memory of the camp is dropping water droplets on the fine silty soil and watching it form mud cakes,” he said.

Chan and his family missed out on resettlement in France and America, where many Cambodians fleeing the Khmer Rouge ended up.

“We knew nothing about Australia, but in 1976, the Fraser Government put us on a charter flight to Melbourne,” he said.

“Our first home in Australia was the Nunawading migrant hostel until my parents rented a house in Mitcham and bought their first home in Bayswater for $29,000.

“My first school experience was Mitcham Primary School. As I entered the front door as a six-year-old, my first thought was, ‘I have to learn the English alphabet quickly’.

“I knew I had to master the language to be able to help my parents out. Typically, like many migrant children, I would ring their work to say that mum or dad is sick today and can’t come in.

“There were not many Asian kids at school. I was the only one in my class, and I think the only others in the school were sisters from Hong Kong.”

Chan said he struggled with his background as a child.

“As a kid, I experienced racism, and I remember seeing graffiti saying: ‘Stop the Asian invasion’. I was ashamed of the name Kampuchea; it reminded me of all the bad stuff that had happened in my homeland, and that affected me.”

Eventually, Chan became comfortable with his roots and, after completing a business degree, opened a Cambodian restaurant called Bopha Devi, which means ‘goddess of flowers’.

“Opening the restaurant reconciled me with my heritage, and I began teaching myself about it. I found out about Angkor Wat and that this civilisation had produced the largest religious complex in the world,” Chan said.

“Through the restaurant, I was able to research and discover a love for Cambodia and realise who I am,” he said.

Chan says his time in Dimboola has been an incredible journey.

“I’ve developed as a person. I’m community-oriented, but I never envisioned becoming involved in the community and helping to boost tourism. I’ve met wonderful people through the Dimboola Imagination and other community groups, and I’ve fallen in love with the region,” he said. 

One review of the play Dimboola says it is “pre-eminently an entertainment, offering plenty of opportunity for audience participation and emotional response”.

After the arrival of Chan and Jamie, that can now be said of the town itself.