Chief executive Ray Campling and economic and community development manager Terry Sanders discussed the plan with councillors at a forum on Wednesday.

Mr Campling said councillors had decided the project fell outside their core business but would approach the shire's progress associations with the proposal.

"The council felt it was a positive proposal and commended the Buloke Shire and relevant bodies for their initiative, but council has decided the progress associations are the appropriate organisations to develop the proposal further," he said.

The Buloke Shire town of Wycheproof has received international media attention since community group Wycheproof Vision launched the Rent a Farmhouse Project early this month.

Successful applicants will pay rent of $1 a week and will be required to renovate the farmhouses they live in as well as contribute to community life over a period of two to three years.

Wycheproof Rent a Farmhouse project co-ordinator Kylie Brown said she had been inundated with applications since the program received coverage on Channel Seven's Today Tonight.

Mrs Brown said two farmhouses were available and a third would be added to the program by September.

She said the disused farmhouses would be brought up to a livable standard before successful applicants moved in.

"The houses belong to landholders who have no use for them," she said.

"Rather than let them go to ruin, this program will see the houses renovated while attracting new residents to Wycheproof."

Extensive media coverage depicting the town's quiet lifestyle and friendly community has also attracted several inquiries to real estate agents and the Wycheproof P-12 School.

Mrs Brown said she hoped the project would be as successful as the $1 rental program at Cumnock, New South Wales, which increased the town's population by 20 per cent.

"As well as the successful applicants of that program, media coverage attracted hundreds more people to the town and we have modelled our project on that one," she said.

"This project relies on community support and volunteer labour as well as farmers willing to participate. We will keep working on houses as long as we have more houses to work on."

West Wimmera Shire Council chief executive Jim McKay said council had considered a similar project in the past but had retired the idea because of a lack of community support.

"We found the issue at the time was reluctance on the part of some farmers for their farmhouses to be used because often the people on their properties were unfamiliar with farm practices," he said.