The Boathouse.

Cooking pot collection 2Brunyfire’s growing collection of international clay cooking pots reside at the recently completed Boathouse on Bruny – Bruny Island on the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, off the south eastern coast of Tasmania that is.

The Boathouse was designed and made by Brunyfire and husband John over a 2-3 year period…………….and has a passionate significance to Brunyfire, as husband John passed away there after a gallant battle with a rare form of cancer. However, this dedication is not intended to be maudlin, it’s a celebration of all that we achieved in those last fantastic 6 years (7 months and 27 days) of his life.

This project was aided and abetted by numerous generous family members, starting with preparing the footings…….……..and pouring the foundations…….…..with Daniel, Pat and Jethro. One of the main helpers in this project has been young Jethro who relished working with his Grampa on many Bruny projects…….……such as the greenhouse that came later.

Once the shed footings were completed and a base slab cast for the under-croft with the position of the water tanks marked out…….…..the spare tanks were installed – for collecting any extra water for watering the garden, washing the dome and combating bush fires. Once the tanks were installed, the main structure to the under croft was built and the floor joists constructed in readiness for the first stage of the flooring. Brother Pat then helped again as we unloaded the steel arches that John had prefabricated at our home workshop on Mount Nelson…..…….and with Tristan’s careful manouvering from the crane on his truck, the arches just made it to their destined positions.The two side walls were then constructed in situ on the floor of the boatshed, with hinges attached to the base of the wall and to the edge of the floor. The framing was then clad with mini orb (a mini form of corrugated iron sheeting) and then raised in stages by the two of us into their vertical positions and propped.Then, balancing long sheets of pre-curved roofing iron on our heads, we tentatively scaled our ladders and hauled the roofing on – a somewhat scary operation but one that we managed successfully without damaging ourselves! The installation of the massive glass sliding doors (to the rear deck) and the top windows was the most nail biting procedure of all, but the finish was worth all the effort

We then spoiled ourselves by employing a couple of brickies (rather than attempting it ourselves) to lay the pavers we had had stored for several years. And after all that effort, so many times have we just sat together in silent but contented exhaustion, looking out over our bay with no name, watching a pair of sea eagles swoop from our very own Bruny widescreen. But the adventure will continue – traveling to the far flung corners of the world in search of those illusive clay cooking pots is Brunyfire’s future and catching up with friends and family along the way.