Some of my earliest childhood memories are sitting on my Fafa’s workbench in his cavernous workshop in Youngtown, Tasmania, as he built or repaired a piece of furniture for Nan, or sharpened a garden tool for the world’s biggest veggie garden. That workbench, built post WW2 as Fafa built his first house, now resides in my own workshop, gifted to me when Nan & Fafa downsized. My family has always been “woodies”, first with Fafa, then my Dad (who I still build with to this day), and then myself. I guess over engineering with timber is in our blood. I’m hopeful that one of my kids will catch the bug sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I get to make sawdust with my wife and parents, as we work side by side building the next project. 

 

I like to think I’m a fairly simple guy, a bit of a nerd who loves Star Wars and Model Trains. I’m fiercely protective of my wife, kids and our privacy, and I can do a fairly good impression of a hermit. I also ride motorbikes and play drums in bands, so that’s the counterpoint to the nerd I guess. I love AFL (Hawthorn Hawks are my team), cricket, and have started to appreciate the game of basketball since meeting Rebecca in 2013. I’ve got a list of books to read before I die that doesn’t seem to be getting any smaller, I just don’t seem to have the time as I once did.   

 

And I love timber.

And tools.

Tools that can be used with timber are da bomb.

​

I love vintage tools, and I own more tools than is probably healthy. There’s just something about the feel and sound of a well tuned hand plane as it takes a shaving. It’s visceral, it’s calming and it’s so……..zen? While I own power tools and machinery, I prefer using hand tools where possible. I maintain that before you can use the powered variety of a tool, you should know how to use the hand tool version first.   

 

I’ve been a High School Industrial Arts and VET  teacher for close to 20 years, starting in Wodonga Victoria, and now in Narrandera, NSW. I’ve been woodworking for longer than that, building furniture for my kids, and the various houses I’ve owned along the way. My beautiful wife Rebecca and I had the opportunity in 2021 to buy the heritage listed Mon Repos (French for my rest) in Narrandera. Starting life as a residence in 1896, it was sold to and became the Murrumbidgee Club in 1903. As the club was winding down in the 1990s it sold the property to the Broncano family, which became their family home until we purchased it. Mon Repos was known Australia wide as a seller of fine, antique, European furniture and Vintage decor in its heyday.  While we have re-opened the shop, our focus is on vintage furniture and books, offering furniture restoration and custom furniture design and production.  

 

While I love teaching high school students, the teaching profession has changed over my career. The expectations put on teachers, and the workload has become unsustainable. Rebecca and I are working to correct our work/life balance, and as part of that want to move away from full time teaching into working for ourselves doing something we truly love.

 

For Beck, it’s books and writing, for me it’s furniture building and teaching furniture making and woodworking.   

 

And that’s where Mon Repos Furniture School begins….