The first round of Wycheproof's rent-a-farmhouse program closed on Monday, with 103 hopefuls submitting applications after viewing photos of two vacant farmhouses on the internet.

Interest has been overwhelming since Wycheproof, three hours north-west of Melbourne, offered the farmhouses for nominal rent last month.

More than 12,000 hits were registered on the program's website and applications were received from as far afield as Germany and India, despite a requirement to reside in Australia.

Co-ordinator Kylie Brown said today that applications would be culled to a shortlist of 30 in the next few weeks.

Three hopefuls would be selected to meet each farmhouse owner, and see their prospective abode for the first time.

Mrs Brown said the property owners would ultimately select the successful tenants.

Tenants would sign a one-year lease, with the offer of two additional years at $1 per week, then have first option to rent for future years at the going market rate, she said.

In return for the cheap rent, families are required to renovate or maintain the properties.

The wheat-farming town of Wycheproof, population 815, adopted the program to reinvigorate the town after the success of similar schemes in the New South Wales town of Cumnock and Levendale in Tasmania.

The idea of a tree change has since captured the imagination of the nation, with applications flooding in from Broome, other more remote regions in Western Australia and the Apple Isle.

And some hopefuls have gone to extraordinary lengths to stand out.

One couple sent two photographs — a formal portrait and a tongue-in-cheek shot of them looking homeless at a bus stop with their dogs and a sign 'Wycheproof or bust'.

"We quite liked that one," Mrs Brown said.

More than 75 per cent of the applicants have previously lived in a rural area and 85 per cent of hopefuls are working or studying.

Those who miss out in the first round can still apply for several newly listed farmhouses that will be offered for low rates of $50 to $100 a week.

But Mrs Brown said people were already so taken with the Wycheproof lifestyle that they were not taking any chances.

"We've had some people who have bypassed the project altogether and have started looking at properties in the area," she said.

* For more information on Wycheproof Vision's rent-a-farmhouse program go to wycheproof web site.