A CRAFTY old bloke in Bomaderry just completed a unique sign carved from a single piece of bluegum hardwood, three metres long.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Bob Aulsebrook created the unique sign that will be hung in the new beer garden of the Nerriga Hotel.
“I’m mates with David Smith, whose son and fiancee, Philip and Sierra, recently bought the Nerriga Pub,” said Mr Aulsebrook.
“I remembered I had this rustic slab of hardwood. David and I kicked around the idea of a sign for the pub and came up with this.
“I ended up getting a sign writer to do some stencils of the lettering and then used a router to carve out the name.
“It’s bloody hard wood, there was a fair bit of smoke coming from the router.”
The sign took him about a month to complete, between doing other things.
Mr Aulsebrook has a connection with the Nerriga area having previously owned a tow truck company with which he said he made plenty of runs between Nowra and Nerriga in the middle of the night.
While he has a passion for woodwork now he spent most of his life working with steel.
A boilermaker by trade, he went on to build the Nowra Speedway before retiring 18 years ago.
It was after only a month of retirement that he discovered the joys of working with wood.
“With steel everything has to be measured accurately, wood is far more forgiving,” he said.