The 20-minute coffee van that keeps a small community together

Underbool residents start ordering their coffee at 7:30am sharp. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)

Headlights first. Then the hum of her SUV rolling into a gravel car park on a quiet stretch of the Mallee Highway.

It's 7:25am. Underbool, the small country town of 215 people according to the last census, is still half-asleep.

It is Tuesday. One of the two days a week when Lee Brown opens her coffee van for just 20 minutes.

Lee Brown brews morning coffee in her truck five days a week. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)

She does not waste a second: bins in, door open, awnings flicked into position.

And by the time the milk is frothing, utes are already lining up.

The coffee van is a meeting place for Underbool residents and visitors. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)

Underbool is about as far from Melbourne's laneway coffee culture as you can get before crossing the South Australian border.

Among the gumtrees, about 500 kilometres north-west of the latte-sipping capital, a morning coffee ritual has taken hold.

The coffee van is a morning meeting place for Underbool locals. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)

Flat whites. Long blacks. Even caramel lattes. Like the town it services, the coffee is made strong.

And for a short, precise, almost unbelievable window of time, Lee's coffee van is the busiest spot in town.

Customers can choose from a wide range of beverages. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)

At 7:30am sharp, the first three customers are at the counter.

And almost instantaneously, three turns into more than a dozen.

Lee Brown working her coffee machine. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)

Lee moves quickly. She knows most of her customers by name and order, and most of them know exactly how long they have got.

"People look at my hours online and think, 'What a waste of time,'" Lee says while frothing milk.

It is important for the tradies, the farmers, the truck drivers, the socialites and the passers-by.

Lee Brown's coffee fuels the people who keep the community alive. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)

They time their morning around their freshly brewed barista coffee.

Lee often makes more than 30 coffees during her 20-minute shift, before heading to her other job at the Underbool Neighbourhood House.

That's when her alfresco chairs fill, conversations stretch out, and locals settle in.

For customers, it's less about the coffee and more about what comes with it.

For local shearer Hamish Farnsworth, the coffee van is a chance to see his neighbours.

"The coffee is just the bit that brings everyone together," he says.

Hamish Farnsworth has adopted freshly brewed coffee into his morning routine