Thirteen years of drought has dried up more than the land in Wycheproof, where the shrinking community of 815 residents is trying to lure families with the cheapest rent in the state.

Cereal farmer Allan Fawcett has signed up to lease out a three-bedroom farmhouse for a dollar as part of a plan to promote the town.

The drought has been tough on the wheat town, midway between Melbourne and Mildura, where a quarter of the residents are farmers and grain trains the length of the town rumble along tracks running up the main street.

"It's got to a stage where some people are having to sell up," Mr Fawcett said.

The exodus has seen the prep to year 12 school lose about 30 per cent of its students in four years and the netball and football clubs struggle to fill teams.

As the big dry sent some farmers packing, others, including Mr Fawcett, bought up their neighbours' land.

But with a home of his own, he had no need for the property's 1950s weatherboard house.

"It's just a matter of striking up a deal with someone who would be happy to have cheap rent but also to improve the property to some degree," Mr Fawcett said.

Wycheproof post office licensee and farmhouse project co-ordinator Kylie Brown said community groups had rallied to come up with a plan to "future-proof Wycheproof"'.

She said under the rental scheme, two farmhouses were initially being offered, both a few kilometres from the town centre, and another six properties could be available soon.

She said the town was seeking families with children who wanted a lifestyle change to take up the bargain rent, in exchange for improving and maintaining the houses over two or three years.

"I would love to see an extra 20 children at the school," she said.

Ms Brown said it was hoped applicants might have trade skills and could provide services sorely lacking in the area.

Similar schemes have helped save a primary school in the Tasmanian village of Levendale and revitalised the drought-stricken town of Cumnock in NSW.

http://www.wycheproof.v ic.au