Peter Murray with his new sculptures, along Pretty Pine Rd.
Pretty Pine’s Peter Murray has turned a lifetime of tinkering into a yard full of imagination, and now you can see it from the road.
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Two eagles with a nest and chick, a goanna climbing the tree, and two nearby emus have become the talk of the town after spontaneously popping up along the Cobb Highway near the Pretty Pine Hotel.
A retired bridge builder, Mr Murray was looking for something to keep himself occupied after his retirement.
“I retired 14 years ago and went west for three years,” he said.
“I was in Wave Rock, Hyden, and saw some scrap metal art - a 12‑foot seahorse made from plough shears - and thought, I could do something like that.”
And he did.
Since then, Mr Murray’s yard has become a gallery of welded wonders.
There’s roosters made from gas bottles, men from railway spikes, beehives of barbed wire, and even giant porcupines.
“I’m a bit of a junk collector,” he said.
“Being a bridge builder, you really have to be a bit of a jack of all trades.”
Mr Murray does not just show off his work at home.
He’s taken second prize for his giant rusty crocodile at Lockhart’s Spirit of the Land festival, and routinely donates his art to be auctioned for charity.
He also sells the occasional piece.
The latest addition, on display at the front of his property, has already captured public interest.
“I watch people pull up and take pictures of it, I find it funny,” he said.
“I’m glad people like them.”
Armed with grinders, a welder and a plasma cutter, Mr Murray plans to keep at it.
“I’m just gonna do it til I drop,” he laughed.
For Mr Murray’s wife, Kerry, having someone so handy with the tools around has meant seeing a continuously growing imaginative garden.
“It is nice. You can see all his work right throughout the garden,” she said.
“It’s important to have something to do once you retire,” she continued.
“Only problem with that is I don’t get paid,” Mr Murray added with a laugh.
Mr Murray is already planning his next addition to his newest work, with plans to add another eagle further up the branch.
And who knows where his imagination will take him next.
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