Country Style March 2021

My artistic career was short but memorable – for the wrong reasons. In Year 1 at Henty Primary School, the composite class made up of kindergarten and my year were asked by our teacher to draw something to enter in the Henty Show. My mind went blank. I had no idea what to do. Taking ‘inspiration’ from my classmate sitting beside me, I began to draw. Unlike others in my family, I was not blessed with artistic talent, so it was quite a surprise when several weeks later I was awarded third prize. My mum was very proud, but the glory of my accolade was outweighed by the guilt I felt at having plagiarised (a word my six-year-old self did not know) my friend’s work, and that was the end…

ALEX SPEED Country girl Alex, who has been a journalist for nearly 30 years, interviewed fellow Southern Highlands resident and artist Vanessa Stockard on page 24. “I live and breathe life in regional Australia,” says Alex, 51, who grew up on a property outside Orange in NSW. After moving to Sydney and becoming a journalist, she now lives in the Southern Highlands with husband Torquil and their children Issy, 16, Lochy, 14, and Murdo, nine. Rounding out the household are dogs Sampson and Esme, cats Sid and Lucy, and a budgie called Smuggler, who all roam their old weatherboard house, which Alex describes as “a work in progress”. “My husband is a fine furniture maker and it’s true what they say about being married to an artisan – yours is always the…

SOUL RESTORING I recently found the November 2020 edition of Country Style again and viewed the cover: yes indeed, a “time to dream”! My solo existence now, after 60 years of a wonderful marriage, gives me time to dream. This morning, I awoke early and glanced out of my large window to see two colourful rosellas bathing in the birdbath. I crept out and turned the sprinkler on; within minutes there were six to eight friends flying through the spray in the early light. How fortunate we are to find solace in a country garden. This I find often in country life, and in Country Style. Gypsy Sandow, Clare, SA PRECIOUS MOMENTS During the school holidays I was able to travel from Tasmania to Perth without having to isolate. It was a busy break with…

PLEASE PICTURE THIS: It’s late. I’m about to turn out my reading light when my phone alerts me to a series of messages. It’s the guests in our Airbnb cottage. They have no water, but they can hear water rushing. I groan, throw back the covers, pull on UGG boots and a jumper (this is summer in Tasmania), and tell The Farmer I’ll go and investigate. During the drought, our 190(ish)-year-old cottage had its contents stripped, its walls painted, its garden trimmed and its stone wall repaired before being hauled into the service of “diversifying the farm income”. Our farm fronts the popular East Coast tourist drive and we were busy from the moment we opened our bookings. Before COVID hit, we were often booked out by groups of international students who…

IT CAN TAKE up to 12 weeks for ceramicist Lindsey Wherrett to transform a lump of Tasmanian clay into a beautiful and unique piece that will be the focal point of a room. Her traditional techniques, she says, cannot be rushed. From carefully hand-moulding the clay on the wheel to firing it over a live flame to applying the finish, her ceramic basins and light fittings are made in such a way that each piece is perfectly tailored to the person who has ordered it. “Because I’m making everything by hand, I can customise the form and size to suit the project,” Lindsey says. “It is a really nice way to be involved, and I appreciate that connection with the client.” Lindsey was born and raised in Scotland and so is at…

“I had a wheelbarrow, a hammer and a screwdriver. I sold my car and used the rest of my savings to set us up for the first three months.” IF YOU HAD TOLD KAREN 25 YEARS AGO that she would one day be a Nuffield scholar and Tasmania’s Rural Woman of the Year, she would have laughed in your face. The scientist, who works from her laboratory in the Tamar Valley hinterlands, was at the time on a very different trajectory. Raised on a farm in Meander, northern Tasmania, Karen milked the family cow every morning before school, as well as helping her parents in the dairy and on the property producing lamb, beef, wheat, potatoes and poppies. “We were brought up tough. Everyone was equal, everyone put in and no problem…