TWO families have decided to trade city life for a slice of Victorian countryside by accepting an offer to rent a farmhouse for a $1 a week.

Darren and Sally-Anne Samson and their three children will move to Wycheproof, about three hours northwest of Melbourne, in the coming weeks.

Joining them will be Queenslanders Phil and Toni-Maree Hoogendoorn and their two daughters during the Christmas holidays.

"We have been bouncing off the walls since we found out", Ms Hoogendoorn said.

The two families were selected from about 100 applications from across Australia to move to Wycheproof and pay the peppercorn rent.

The town, population 815, launched the offer to rent out vacant farm houses in July as a way to attract new residents.

The community has been shrinking with lower school enrolment and a footy club concerned it wouldn't have the numbers to keep going.

The project was inspired by similar initiatives in Levendale, Tasmania, and Cumnock in NSW.

Short-listed families missed out on the $1 a week rent, but took up offers to rent other properties in the area for $100 to $120 a week.

This round was so successful that Wycheproof plans to prepare two more farm houses to rent for $1 a week by the start of the 2010 school year.

Interested families can apply at www.wycheproof.vic.au.