As an Australian Rules football town Kalbarri bucks all the trends.

A growing coastal fishing and tourism destination, Kalbarri appears to have no footy history at all. It’s not even in the index of A Way of Life: The Story of Country Football in Western Australia and doesn’t get a mention in Derek Mott’s even more extensive examination of WA country footy. However in recent years there’s been movement. Northampton’s junior and senior teams have played games at Kalbarri Oval and a magnificent new scoreboard has been built.

For a while there was a masters footy team called the Kalbarri Cormorants but now Northampton Rams masters, like the juniors and seniors, play the odd game at Kalbarri.

So this is a story of footy slowly coming to a town – and if Kalbarri ever gets its own team the nickname simply has to be Kangaroos – not only for the alliteration but because of the visitors who train on the oval around dusk every day.

• Thanks to Conrad for putting up the score.