I’M JEALOUS. STANDING AMID THE EPHEMERA of 144 years of living and aspiring and upgrading, the dusty, discarded objects crammed into an original shearing shed at Callubri Station, a 11,500-hectare working farm in Buddabadah, about 50 kilometres outside of the central NSW town of Nyngan, look like priceless treasure to a dedicated thrifter like myself. I would gladly take most of it off the hands of owners Angie and Mike Armstrong, but Angie has other ideas. The huge set of wooden-framed windows leaning up against a wall that were snapped up from a local school renovation are earmarked for a future project (another set is already installed in Angie and Mike’s pretty homestead on the property). The old shearing tools will be styled up as interesting objets d’art. A dust-covered wool-sorting table will eventually host convivial communal meals. Even the shed itself will be recycled, as a wedding and events space when Angie can find the time to get around to it.
In an environment where farming is an increasingly challenging lifestyle to maintain, the Armstrongs are charting a sustainable future by reusing the old and embracing the new. Mike, whose family
