Arts
9 January, 2024
Summer reading: Century of creative recycling
PETROL was 73 cents a litre when cars last stopped for fuel in Korong Vale. Tyre pressure was checked by a gauge running from a converted Bridgewater gas lamp pole back in the Great Depression. The doors of McTaggart’s garage and agricultural...
PETROL was 73 cents a litre when cars last stopped for fuel in Korong Vale.
Tyre pressure was checked by a gauge running from a converted Bridgewater gas lamp pole back in the Great Depression.
The doors of McTaggart’s garage and agricultural equipment showroom an invitation for district farmers to come and chew the fat.
The garage was a place where solutions were found and machinery fixed inside the walls made from old 44 gallon drums once filled with bitumen.
“It was a place where everything was fixed, a positive vibe and a functional part of the community,” says sculptor David McTaggart of the garage built by grandfather James.
David is the third generation of McTaggarts to live in Korong Vale after James arrived a century ago.
“He arrived in a T-model ford - he was a man of the times,” David said of the coachbuilder and wheelwright who learnt his trade at Colbinabbin.
“James moved into the Vernon’s garage the other side of the railway line when they moved to Swan Hill. When the landlord wanted to put up the rent during the Depression, grandpa was backed by local farmers and bought the land and built this garage out of recycled bitumen barrels.
“I remember him assembling wagons ... the one outside the old Mysia store was built by my grandfather.
“When I was four, grandpa had me holding one of the blacksmith tools while he shaped the steel. And childhood was often spent swinging up and down on the bellows handle.”
David also recalls the fine pinstripe paintwork applied by his grandfather to carriages and wagons.
He would join James and father Ted at that same shed “where mates would hang out ... the Matthews brothers, John Murnane and others”, sometimes heading to the front forecourt to pump petrol into a customer’s car.
But the creative side, perhaps inspired by his grandfather’s handiwork would come to the forefront when David headed off following his passion in the arts.
He studied at Bendigo in the 1970s, met fellow student Rhonda who would later become his wife and both, eventually school teachers.
David took the longer route to school teaching - an artist in St Kilda during the punk era, two years working in a factory and also exploring the art of print making for the fashion industry.
The couple moved to Orbost when art teacher Rhonda was posted there.
It was at the time more Australian fashions were being produced off-shore and there was already no shortage of school art teachers.
David opted to do a degree that led to him becoming a mathematics teacher.
The lure of the old garage back in Korong Vale was always present and when his father Ted died in 1996, David kept the time capsule full of family memories accumulated since 1923.
Retirement brought him back to the Vale and a ready-made workshop for artistic creations using eight-gauge fencing wire.
“It’s ideal for acetylene welding and I have been fortunate to have work displayed at Swan Hill, in Bendigo and Dunolly,” David said.
“The Buckrabanyule area is good for finding old wire.”
Surrounding the old tin garage that he has salvaged from the destructive might of white ants, David has created a fence of old tools and implements, bicycles and other discarded equipment.
“The outdoor wall just keeps growing ... it’s a work within itself,” he said as another piece of rusted steel is methodically put in place.
A bit like his wire sculptures, there can be a plan or design. “Yes, sometimes there is a plan and at other times I will free up and try different things. I might integrate bolts into the sculptures too. However, I tend not to be representational most of the time ... I did do a motorcycle once.”
That motorcycle now stands sentinel outside, neatly placed beside one of the old bowsers.
And like his father and grandfather, David is making the old garage a place where solutions are found.
A century ago James McTaggart would make hot water services for Korong Vale residents or a blood and bone tank for the local butcher or produce his own pigment for pinstriping wagons and carriages.
“The garage was always a stimulating place ... a place that made things possible and solved problems.”
David has caught up with Roy Mann, the former Balranald panel beater and Anglican priest now restoring an Edwardian house in Wedderburn. David once designed a T-shirt for Roy’s business.
Or helping a car enthusiast from Mitiamo who found a key part sitting in the old garage.
“There’s huge enthusiasm for old equipment,” David said.
One of his next projects is to restore the old forge that once put heat into the work of blacksmiths
David rates the old wheelwrights as being at the forefront of technology and creativity.
It’s his passion for creativity, and perhaps honouring grandfather James, that keeps David crafting sculptures. His works, along with those of wife Rhonda are part of an exhibition of sculptures, print making, painting and ceramics by central Victoria artists now showing in Marong.
And then, it will be back to finding more wire and adding to rusty art wall at the old garage.