Waroona becomes fairy capital this week with fairy door trail launching in town

The Shire of Waroona has adopted a new title — Fairy Capital of Australia.

The town is set to open the biggest fairy door trail in the State this week, with doors being given out to community groups and business around the shire from Magic Barn Fairy Garden.

The doors will all be on display from March 29 creating a scavenger hunt around the town and surrounding areas for fairy finders to explore.

Owners of the fairy garden Annette and Brian Kent said they were excited to share some magic with the community.

The doors are all hand made by Mr Kent, who has lovingly sculpted, decorated and painted 39 fairy doors to be passed out around the shire.

Mr Kent said he initially made six doors for various businesses in town, but that number exploded to 39, with even more locals putting their hand up to be involved in the trail in the future.

Mrs Kent said she was thrilled at the number of businesses taking part in the trail.

She said they wanted to do something for the community that was fun and free for everyone and encourages visitors to Waroona to explore the town and the local businesses within.

“This is stage one, and Brian has a lot of orders for stage two,” Mrs Kent said.

“I believe this is the largest fairy door trail in WA.”

Mrs Kent said they had been calling Waroona the fairy capital of Australia before they opened the Magic Barn Fairy Garden at the end of 2022.

“We knew it would be really popular, every person in the community is behind it, they are all supporting the project,” she said.

“We have people coming from all over the State coming here, and we need those people to spend the entire day, or even multiple days, discovering all the fairy doors around town.”

Waroona shire president — now also president of fairy town — Mike Walmsley said he looked forward to seeing the doors around town and congratulated Mr and Mrs Kent for their commitment to developing the trial.

“Small towns across Australia are struggling, and Waroona is not immune to it,” he said.

“The retail side can be really challenging, but you (Mr and Mrs Kent) have proved that if you’ve got great ideas, vision and energy, it can work anywhere.”

Murray-Wellington MLA Robyn Clarke said she was thrilled to have the fairy trail opening up within Waroona.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am, this is the most phenomenal idea and I am excited to get behind it,” she said.

Mrs Clarke said there were plans to improve the Hamel Eco Park, with a community cleanup event in August, and she said she would love to work with the shire to expand the fairy gardens to the park.

“There’s the possibility, after we do our cleanup in August, that we can start to expand it,” she said.

“Let’s make this bigger than Gnomesville.”

The trail will be officially launched in the coming months, with the scavenger hunt requiring people to document their findings around the town.