Beyond the Black Stump
Out west in Queensland there’s a region known as the Western Downs that’s almost as big as Switzerland. Instead of snow covered alps however, you’ll find a tapestry of forests and farmland intersected by wetlands and rivers.
The land near Dalby, where Guy and Jan Breay live, is nonarable ironbark and cypress pine ridge country. The budgeroo () that Guy loves to sculpt is also native to that area, however around 60 years ago much of it was ring-barked by timber getters to make way for the cypress pine that sawyers saw commercial value in. ‘Budgeroo is a very beautiful timber, but prone to having natural internal pipes and cavities’, he said. ‘Another hard, rugged and beautiful timber that I salvage is flame sheoak (),’ Guy added. ‘Cypress pine tree stumps also have exquisite
