Central Queensland women turning landfill waste into sculpture art

Jackie Murdoch and Melissa Spencer share the same passion for the bush and animals, which are reflected in their artworks.

With an abundant of farm wire and scrap metal laying around the farm or in landfill, both women have started collecting the waste to create wire sculptures.

Jackie and her husband Nathan Murdoch and their three children manage Morbank cattle station, 90 kilometres north west of Rockhampton.

In her free time, Jackie has created a little business called Country Dust Creations, where she markets her barb wire hat creations online.

"It's a little hobby that I do when I've got free time," Ms Murdoch said.

"I went to a friend's place and she asked me if I wanted to make a barb wire hat with her and I did. I started doing it for a bit of 'me time', instead of being busy with the kids all the time."

"Basically, we pull down old barb wire fences and when we have time, I make the left over wire into broad brim hats.

"It's better than being dumped into landfill."

After posting her hats social media, Jackie created a huge fan base, with hundreds of people admiring her art.

"I've sold around 20 barb wire hats right across Australia. People seem to love the texture of it. I love making them and seeing the end end result," she said.

"I've decided that I'm only going to sell what I make. I'm not going to start doing orders because they do take a bit of time to make and I want to be able to keep creating different things, not just doing the same flower on the same hat."

To make the hat itself, it takes Jackie about three hours and that includes making the unique flower feature and sourcing the wire.

With the help from her husband, Jackie said it's all fun process.

"The flowers are all made out of old corrugated iron from the local rubbish dump," Ms Murdoch said

"I draw a stencil first, trace around the stencil, cut the stencil out, and then piece it together, then I sort of fold it, shape it, and paint it.

"The blue hat, which has the three blue flowers with the blue band and the plain blue wire around the outside is probably my favourite at the moment, but every time I make a hat, I've got another favourite.

"My husband is great help as well, he's helped me with the welding and shaping side of things.

"He's got a bit of a knack for it as well but he doesn't have the time to do it."

A few hundred kilometres away, Melissa Spencer of Mayfield, Willows, also shares the same passion for wire art.

Ms Spencer saw inspiration in other artists work, who found creativity in turning old wire into pieces of art.

"I had wanted to do wire art for a while before I'd started it," she said.

"I had seen, chicken wire sculptures made from new wire and people making art with scrap wire, which I always thought was cool.

"We definitely don't have a shortage of scrap wire around the place, so I thought I'd give it a go."

With a love and passion for working dogs, Melissa has created two life-size kelpie wire sculptures out of plain wire and old netting.

"It's a great creative outlet and something different to do, I really enjoy it. I did my first wire dog sculpture in late 2020 as a Christmas present," she said.

"Working Dogs are a massive part of my life. I love working them with the cattle.

"It took me around four days to bring the large dog sculpture to life, while the little one only took me about a day to make."

Melissa donated one her dog sculptures to the "Tie up the black dog" charity auction, which went on to sell for $450.

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