History

 

Brisbane Studio 

I attended Art School at the Central Technical College, Brisbane in 1961 and 1962. After Art School I taught for 2 years at the Rockhampton High School. In my leisure time I would draw and paint. In my second year in Rockhampton I made friends with a professional potter who made unglazed terra-cotta garden wares. He made a wheel available to me and in return I made items of my design that I left for him as a thank you.

I had no intention of continuing as a teacher. My ideal would have been to both paint and pot on a full-time basis. Observing the leading Brisbane painters I had encountered and knowing of others I clearly saw that painting fulltime was a financially risky choice but I could see the possibility of scratching out a living as a potter.

At the completion of the 1964 school year I moved back to Brisbane and immediately commenced setting up my studio. I built a new much larger wood fired brick kiln to replace the kiln I built in 1962.

 

1967 Errol & Warren Palmer (lifelong friend from Art School) setting the wood fired kiln

 

At various times I shared my workshop with other potters and artists. 

 

Collaboration with Roy Churcher, a leading Brisbane painter.

 

Springbrook

Lyrebird Ridge Pottery

As a boy I fell in love with the rainforest at Mt. Glorious to the North West of Brisbane. My dream was to live in a rainforest. I later rented an old house and lived at Mt Glorious for a couple of years. In the early 70's I was approached by Tony Groom to teach at Binna Burra for their winter Creative Arts Weeks. Binna Burra, a mountain guest house in the Gold Coast hinterland, was established by Arthur Groom during the 1930s. Arthur's widow Marjorie and two of their sons, Don and Tony, were living and working there. We become friends and they put a proposal to me to build on Binna Burra land on the proviso that I made my workshop open to their guests and taught the winter schools. I was tempted, but once I discovered Binna Burra was not owned outright by the family but by a company I declined the offer.

Soon after I started exhibiting with Lillian Bosch's Sunfish Gallery on the Gold Coast. Lillian was a wealthy, rather eccentric, American lady who just happened to own about 1,000 acres on Springbrook. She made me an offer to buy land from her at $1,000 per acre repayable interest free at the rate of $1,000 per annum. I checked out her properties but discovered they weren't true rainforest.

She introduced me to Bob Carrick, a dairy farmer on the eastern side of the plateau. Looking to the west from his property I spotted a stand of old-growth rainforest surrounded by regrowth. It just so happened the property belonged to his daughter and son-in-law, Terry and Pam Carroll. They agreed to sell and at the end of 1974 I started work on the property. My then wife Lynne and I moved permanently to Springbrook on 10th January 1975. 

 

1975 Start of Construction

 

From the start I intended that Lyrebird Ridge Pottery would have a teaching component. In 1976 I took on my first trainee, Martin Kelly. The Crafts Board of the Australia Council supported the traineeship. Martin remained for three years.

 

1976 Partially constructed kiln/kick wheel in foreground

 

I continued to accept further trainees. Monica Breeden (Usher), Fiona Buckley (Barnes), Michaela Heinzeller (Kloeckner) and Cameron Williams, with support of the Crafts Board

 

October 1980 Kiln trolley set for firing. Fiona in foreground.

 

In 1986 Jon Durand of Beechmont Pottery and I joined forces to set up Australian Clayworkers in Burleigh. Working to establish that workshop took up a lot of my time and I couldn't justify accepting Crafts Board support to take on another trainee. However Monica and her husband David Usher approached me with the proposal that David take on a traineeship independent of CB support. That worked out well.

Throughout the years the workshop attracted skilled throwers and decorators who relocated to Springbrook. We also employed locals who developed the necessary skills on the job. All roles were valued. At our peak we numbered fifteen.

In the early 1990s Australia went into a severe recession. It hit us particularly hard in 1992. Sales decreased dramatically and we unfortunately had to downsize. We weren't the only ones hurting. Some other workshops closed permanently. We continued on as a small operation until 1998 after which I worked on my own. I came to think that we wouldn't see a resurgence of interest for pottery in my life time.

Fiona and I decided to diversify. We opened Lyrebird Ridge Cafe and Gallery in late 1998. At the same time I also began to study the glowworms that lived on the property. I built a noctarium so that they could be viewed in the daytime as well as at night. In 2000 we began to conduct tours. That part of our business grew strongly mainly due to the international tour groups. In the beginning the Japanese market was the strongest but in time the Chinese took over that role.

2020 Covid brought all to a complete stop.

Fast forward to October 2025..........back open as BARNES Studio Gallery.

Workshop June 1976

February 2026 Original workshop end of building

 Black and white photography by Glen O'Malley