Left As Was...3
by Lexa Harpell
Title
Left As Was...3
Artist
Lexa Harpell
Medium
Photograph - Photographs
Description
Retired Relics from Rural Australia Series by Lexa Harpell.
Deep within the Weddin Mountains National Park in New South Wales Australia, lies Seaton's Farm.
The fence line around the farm was hand made over many years. Chicken wire buried deep in the ground prevented the digging of animals. Kilometres of hand twisted wire formed an extension, strengthened with tree sapling posts to prevent the many kangaroos from jumping the fence and eating Jim's crops.
Left As Was...
"Seaton’s Farm is a fascinating testimony to manual skill and ingenuity and to a great partnership on the economic edge. The farm gives a sense of Jim Seaton as a person, a man who didn’t have much money but knew how a property should operate. Farm machinery, sheds and yards still exist virtually unchanged."
Now an historic site for those who are interested in bush history. Under the care of the National Parks and Services, they have left the farm 'As Is' - yet maintain the grounds.
"For lovers of history and those interested in bush culture Seaton’s Farm located close to Ben Hall’s Cave campground is on the north west of the Weddin Mountain National Park. The farm is an important landmark that was built using only material that was readily available. Seaton’s Farm is 150 acres of poor country running up into the Weddin Mountains.
"The farm was purchased in 1936 at the height of the Great Depression. The house was built in 1939 by Jim Seaton and his father from second hand iron, mill off-cuts, mud earth and hand-cut timber. Jim’s frugalness is evident with corrugated iron having been flattened to make it go further, sheets of iron turned into down pipes and gutters feeding into recycled water tanks and the fencing being made of off cuts joined together. Jim and his father dug the dams by hand while Jim’s mother made a garden.
The markings of a working farm life of an era past. I'm fascinated with history and its relics, they evoke stories of a time passed, their life, their work. There is an unspeakable attachment and fascination to our past. Pondering life, it's hardships and it's joys of an era gone by.
Uploaded
July 4th, 2016
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