BARRINGTON TOPS / NSW
IT ALL STARTED WITH A SIGN
After coming across a blog that featured a trip out to the Firs in the Barrington tops, I knew I had to go.
I am a lover of big trees, Needle stacked floor and deep dark forests.
What excited me most was the location, it seemed so bizarre, in the middle of nowhere, a top a large mountain surrounded by dense Australian Bushland was a plot of Oregon Douglas Fir trees.
Every forest looks different
The Douglas firs are non native and originate in the Pacific north west of the United states of America, the abnormality of finding these trees here interested me and I knew I would be able to find a fallen giant somewhere.
The Barrington Tops are about 8-9 hours from home I made the journey off the back of a trip to Sydney for an exhibition at the Royal botanic gardens, Covid struck and the group show was cancelled, postponed for the forceable future. At that point no one really knew the extent of the situation, things were closing around us all and the social distancing started to take affect.
This sounds like a great time to get lost in the woods.
This magnificent beast greeted me in the eastern corner, resting on multiple other fallen trees it offered me support and space at a reasonable height to work with, its size was so impressive, I was willing to find a way but the saws I had with me were really no match for this one.
The saving grace was the decay in the centre of the tree, allowing me to cut from both side and not having to cut the middle.
Its shape was so interesting, observing the relentless destruction from the inside out, I was fascinated.
The growth pattern from this tree was truly unique.
The end result was beautiful, detailed and barely fit on the paper, I loved how unique its present shape was yet for some some reason I felt it didn’t honour the tree and its life the way I really wanted.
Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder
Fast forward 12 months and I am back to meet this tree again, I made another attempt in late 2020 but my original saws were no match, after cutting for close to 9 hours I admitted defeat and made the decision to upgrade my saw for a traditional one man cross cut saw.
The ability to push and pull with a full stroke means I can cut cleaner, faster and more accurate ultimately offering a better result.
About 1.5 metres was cut off to find solid timber, you can see even going that far back there is still so much moisture in the tree, its dense fibres still water logged.
The finished result shows what a modern topographic map of a forest looks like, dense contours, cracks and valleys formed over time from elements working together and against one an other. Patches of cleared native forest, replanted with non native species, the realness of this tree is apparent in its rings, the life it has lived high in the Barrington Tops
This truely is a unique work and one that I am really proud of.
This work was made on Wanaruah land, 10% will go back directly to the Aboriginal land council located in Muswellbrook.
