With his chainsaw, Peter Adams has brought wooden sculptures to life, and in turn found a new lease on life.
Peter Adams’ earliest memory of using a chainsaw is at age nine when one of his neighbours asked him to climb up a burning tree.
Peter and a few farmers from neighbouring properties were tending a bushfire on the Wirrabara forest edges.
“Someone had to go up the tree to cut holes for water lines to put the fire out,” Peter explains.
“None of the other guys were game enough to do that.”
What nine year old boy wouldn’t want an opportunity to climb a burning tree with a chainsaw in hand? Peter didn’t hesitate.
“I was more scared of starting the chainsaw than climbing the burning tree,” Peter says, laughing at the memory.
Peter, 54, grew up on a 13 acre family property on the edge of the Wirrabara forest, with parents Peter (senior) and Janet.
Peter senior worked as a Boundary Rider and Drover on remote stations in the north of the state and was absent for most of Peter’s childhood.
Peter went to high school in Gladstone, but left at the end of Grade 10.
“My father said I could leave school as long as I had a job.”
He worked for a tree lopping business as a tree worker, cutting back tree branches that were close to power lines, and trees that had fallen on fences or houses.
In 1997 Peter started a small wood business, making furniture and cutting firewood to sell as kindling.
“Before I cut a timber log I’d think to myself, I could sculpt something from this,” he says.
“Burning big pieces of redgum used to upset me, because it was destroyed forever.”
Peter is open about his mental health.
“I suffer from a bit of depression. If I’m not in the mood to do something, I’ll just drop everything and grab my chainsaw and hack away at a piece of wood,“ he explains.
The isolation associated with Covid hit Peter hard. Turning to chainsaw sculpting provided solace.
“I find sculpting helps lift my mood. I don’t do it for the money, because I’d be broke,” he adds laughing.
“My chainsaw sculpting helps keep my mental health in check and to keep people happy in the community.”
That constant supply of old timber gave birth to Pete’s unique artwork.
When Peter goes on family holidays (he has five children) he never looks at the scenery.
“I look at the trees and think about what I could create from them.”
Archie the goanna
Peter drove through the Port Germein Gorge daily past a large log.
He thought about what he could sculpt to place on the log.
One day, the owner of the property the log was on, Robin Poll and his wife Michelle Smith, happened to be in Peter’s workshop.
Michelle and Peter discussed the log and his sculpture idea.
“Michelle said she’d like something on the log and I told her to leave it with me.”
Peter worked on a two and a half metre long goanna. He placed the finished sculpture – ‘Archie’ – on the log and rang Michelle to tell her she should take a look.
Michelle and the community fell in love with ‘Archie’.
As parents drove past the log, their kids would wave out the window at Archie.
But eight months later, Archie was stolen.
“Mothers would visit my workshop and tell me their kids were sad because Archie was gone.
“I knew I should build another one, but make it bigger so it’s harder to pinch.”
Over the next 12 months, in between other work, Peter carved Archie (two) from a large redgum log.
He placed the new Archie closer to the farm house, so Michelle could see him from her kitchen window.
A small parking bay was added for people to stop safely for a photo.
Peter has two other sculptures in the Bangor area.
A three and a half metre long pair of shearer’s shears sits out the front of the Shear Serenity Cottage B & B on Survey Road. It’s made from Redgum sourced on their property.
Blesing’s Garden Wines has a long bench seat with a seven foot tall cello and harp carved into the seat.
“Peter came to see me a couple of years ago and mentioned in passing he was going to create a sculpture for us,” said Margo from Blesing’s Garden Wines.
“Initially it was to be a surprise but he eventually capitulated and let me see what he was creating.
“I was blown away, especially with how he incorporated the music theme into the sculpture.
Peter plans to create a sculpture trail, at no cost to anyone, just his hard work. It will bring people to the region, to see his amazing work.”
Most days you’ll find Peter in his workshop, in the old Wirrabara service station.
To sculpt the timber logs – mostly using redgum which is native around Wirrabara, or forestry pine – Peter uses a battery operated chainsaw which has a thin-tip and a small chain.
To achieve the finer details he’ll use a straight hand-grinder. An angle-grinder or sanding disc smooths the rough edges.
Peter’s other passion is motorbike racing.
He recently travelled to Perth, Western Australia to transport a race motorbike for his son, Tom, who flies in, races on the circuit, then flies out.
While in Perth Peter found some local timber – Jarrah – which he is planning to transform into sculptures.
He’s already sculpted a bin chicken, (an Ibis) and a pelican.
Peter’s next project
Every time Peter drives over the West Laura bridge heading to Pirie, near the start of Possum Park Road and Hughes Road he’s been eyeing off a partially submerged log in the Rocky River.
“It’s an old massive log, maybe three and a half tons.”
Peter hopes to create a sculpture from the old log and dedicate it to Laura local Ian White, who runs a small dairy farm near the bridge.
“I’ve sketched the design in my mind but it has to fit into the log, so the sketch might be scrapped once the log is out of the water and in my workshop.”
A local farmer will help him retrieve the log and transport it to his workshop.
Peter envisages a dairy jersey cow sitting on the log.
“She will be wearing a floral dress, and she’ll be holding a Golden North ice-cream.
She’ll have a medallion hanging around her neck with the words, ‘Number one jersey’ inscribed on the medal.”
Peter may have to modify the design once he cuts into the log.
“If I can’t have her laying down, she might be sitting on a milking bucket,” he added.
When time permits Peter hopes to have a sculpture art trail along the Rocky River.
I don’t think he will stop there.
