Beaumont & Black
← Back to Empower DHT
A charming village street with a department store, motor garage and café glowing in the evening light

Empower DHT Village

The Village

A little high street you can visit any time. Step into the shops, pick up the tools and take your time — everything here is for the pleasure of being there.

Places to visit

The elegant shop window of Beaumont & Black department store

Department Store

Beaumont & Black

Browse coats, china, chocolates and flowers. Nothing is ever charged.

Step inside
A classic car with its bonnet open in a vintage workshop

Motor Workshop

The Motor Workshop

Pick up a spanner and work on a classic car, job by job.

Step inside
The wooden counter of a 1960s corner shop with a brass till and jars of sweets

Corner Shop

The Corner Shop

Step behind the counter, serve the customers and mind the shelves.

Step inside
The sorting frame of a village post office with pigeonholes, mail sacks and parcels

Post Office

The Post Office

Sort the letters, match the stamps and help deliver today's mail.

Step inside
A 1960s classroom seen from the teacher's desk, with a slate blackboard and brass handbell

Village School

Teacher for a Day

Take the class: chalk the blackboard, mark the spellings, ring the bell.

Step inside
The inside of a timber hobby shed with a workbench, tools and seed trays

Hobby Shed

The Hobby Shed

Potter with a hobby — start in the garden beds, plant and pick flowers.

Step inside
A warm café counter with a tea urn, milkshake maker and a cabinet of cakes and slices

Café

The Café

A pot of tea, a sandwich cut fresh and a full cake cabinet.

Step inside
A warm restaurant dining room with white tablecloths, candles, flowers and a piano

Restaurant

The Restaurant

An evening out: choose your table, your courses and the dessert trolley.

Step inside
A traditional bank teller counter in polished timber with brass fittings and a wall clock

Bank

The Village Bank

A timber counter, a savings passbook and the teller's stamp.

Step inside
An open family photo album on a side table beside a cup of tea and loose photographs

My Photos

My Photos

Your own album of family photographs, private to you.

Step inside

More around the village

More places, each with a few gentle jobs to see to. Nothing is timed and nothing can be lost.

A traditional bakery window with crusty loaves, lamingtons, vanilla slices and a decorated sponge cake

Behind the Counter

The Bakery

Fill the window, decorate a cake, bag the bread and make up Mrs Taylor's order.

Step inside
A traditional Australian pub lounge with a timber bar, beer taps, a dartboard, jukebox and billiard table

Behind the Bar

The Pub & Club

Set the table, pull the drinks, score the darts and pick a few songs for the jukebox.

Step inside
A vintage department store clothing counter with hat boxes, folded knitwear, shoe boxes and a dressed mannequin

On the Ladies' Floor

The Dress Shop

Pair the shoes, match a hat to an outfit, fold the knitwear and dress the mannequin.

Step inside
A vintage hair salon with hooded dryers, rollers and combs, beside a barber's chair with razor strop and striped pole

Your Chair

The Salon & Barber Shop

Set up the station, choose the right tools and settle on a style for each customer.

Step inside
A vintage record shop with browsing racks of LPs, a turntable behind the counter and listening booth

Behind the Turntable

The Record Shop

Sort the records into their racks and put on whatever suits the mood.

Step inside
A vintage travel agency window with posters of beaches and mountains, a globe and an open suitcase

Planning a Trip

The Travel Agent

Choose a holiday, then pack a suitcase that suits where you're going.

Step inside
A warm country library with timber shelves, a returns trolley and a date-stamp on the counter

Behind the Desk

The Library

Shelve the returns under simple headings and help a reader find something they'll enjoy.

Step inside
A vintage office with a manual typewriter, black telephone, timber filing cabinets and a desk diary

Front Office

The Office

Filing cabinets, a diary, a rubber stamp and a black telephone that will not stop ringing.

Step inside
An old manual telephone switchboard with brass jacks, cloth-covered cords and a headset

On the Switchboard

The Telephone Exchange

Cords, jacks and a board full of little lights. Put the town through to one another.

Step inside
A country railway platform with a wooden departure board, luggage trolley, ticket punch and steam locomotive

Stationmaster

The Train Station

Set the departure board, match the luggage to its owner, punch the tickets and wave her away.

Step inside
A dawn suburban street with a milk cart, crates of glass milk bottles and bottles on front doorsteps

Before Anyone's Awake

The Milk Run

Down the street in the dark, the right number of bottles on every doorstep.

Step inside
A vintage newspaper office with a compositor's bench, headline blocks, photographs and stacks of folded papers

Putting the Paper to Bed

The Newspaper Office

Headlines with the right photograph, sections in the right order and the weather symbol for tomorrow.

Step inside
An Australian farmyard at dawn with a corrugated iron shed, chooks, a tractor and sheep in the home paddock

Morning Chores

The Farm

Animals in the right paddock, eggs collected, chooks fed and the machinery under cover.

Step inside
A weathered garden shed with terracotta pots, seed packets, a watering can and raised vegetable beds

The Garden Shed

The Garden Shed

Choose what to plant, get the seeds in, water them well and pick what's ready.

Step inside
A sunlit sewing room with a treadle machine, spools of coloured thread, a button tin and a patchwork quilt

The Sewing Room

The Sewing Room

Threads on the spool rack, buttons in the tin and a patchwork quilt coming together on the table.

Step inside
A homely kitchen table set with a teapot, cups, a plate of sandwiches and a picnic basket

Familiar Routines

The Kitchen Table

Set the table, make a pot of tea, cut the sandwiches and pack the picnic basket.

Step inside
A cluttered home workshop bench with a mantel clock, valve radio, wooden chair and bicycle wheel

Mend and Make Do

The Repair Bench

A clock, a chair, a wireless and a bicycle, all waiting for the right tool or part.

Step inside
A quiet Australian estuary at first light with a wooden jetty, fishing rods, a tackle box and a red float on the water

Down at the Water

The Fishing Trip

Pick the bait, cast with one tap and wait for the float to go under.

Step inside
A suburban football ground on match day with goal posts, team scarves on a fence and numbered jumpers on a line

Match Day

At the Footy

Team colours, numbers on the jumpers, scarves out and a shot at goal.

Step inside
A manicured lawn bowls green in afternoon light with black bowls, a white jack and a club pavilion behind

Rink Three

The Bowling Green

Whites on, bowls polished, and a gentle draw down to the jack.

Step inside
A country dance hall with a polished timber floor, bunting, a bandstand and couples dancing under warm lights

Saturday Night

The Dance Hall

Choose a record, name the dance and watch the floor fill up.

Step inside

For the joy of it

Nothing in the village is bought, sold or delivered. It is designed for the simple joy of browsing, making and doing — at whatever pace feels right.

Read the guidance for carers