The beautifully handcrafted letter affixed to the front window is the first sign of the passing of a slice history: "Thank you all for your patronage and care given to us over the past forty-six and a half years, it is greatly appreciated. God bless, Charlie and Colleen."
Charlie and Colleen Howarth shut up shop on the Enterprise Stores in Carcoar for the final time on Sunday, closing the doors on nearly half a century's shopkeeping in the small country town in NSW's Central West.
The store lays claim to being one of the oldest in Australia, locals say, originally opening in 1851, and is steeped in history, with its dark-panelled compartment shelves neatly housing treats and staples for country life.
Locals could drop in to pick up milk, bread, newspapers - but more likely they'd drop in to say hello to Colleen.
Colleen says she's "very sad" but admits that "the time has come to retire". She will miss catching up with locals the most.
"It's not just a bread and milk and paper shop. It's much more than that," she says.
"The friends that we have here. We had family before we came here. We were both reared in Carcoar."
Carcoar, lying between Blayney and Mandurama, became just the third settlement west of the Blue Mountains to be gazetted in 1839 and by 1850 it was the second most populous town west of the mountains, second in size only to Bathurst, becoming a banking and administrative centre for the area.
These days a population of about 150 has seen the town's fortunes fall away.
"We've lost a lot of our facilities here," Colleen recalls. "But it's still a great little town to live in.
"We call some of it 'backward progress' with the facilities we've lost over the years," she says with a chuckle.
She rattles them off - the hospital, the manual exchange, the butcher's shop, a couple of cafes, the general store, the bed and breakfast, a couple of tea rooms. Key features that define daily life in a country town.
Locals wandered in throughout Sunday for a final chat: "It's just a usual day but people are coming in to say farewell."
Colleen has documented the store's fortunes in handwritten accounts over the years.
"Over the past five years there's been a big drop off in businesses in town, not just ours."
Asked when this story will appear, she jokes she will need someone to buy her a copy. Enterprise Stores was the only newspaper stockist in Carcoar and she took her final delivery on Sunday.
The couple will continue to live upstairs but the shop will cease to trade.
They have no plans for a grand celebration to mark their retirement. Their last holiday was nearly 30 years ago: "In 1988, we had a week away. We went to Canberra."
"We're just taking time out for a while. I don't know what the future will hold for us."
This story was first published on The Sydney Morning Herald.
