OUTBACK ART
Carving
a legend
Carving mythological Aboriginal figures and solid outback characters sculptor Kevin Banting has made a successful conversion from a building background to an artistic future on his small family farm near Maryborough, Queensland.
Story Patty Stevenson photos
Back when time began, mythical Queensland Aboriginal tribesman Wook-koo loved to roam and explore the rainforest along the banks of the Mary River, near Maryborough north of Brisbane. Folklore says this tribal land was rich in bush tucker, flowers, animals and birds. These days, most of the rainforest has gone, but the Mary River still flows deep and wide, sandwiched by rich, fertile land in an area now known as the Woocoo Shire.
High on the banks of the river, sculptor Kevin Banting has paid homage
to the Aboriginal founders of the area. Kevin has carved an ironbark sculpture
of mythical tribesman Wook-koo, which stands two-and-a-half metres tall,
and radiates the thousands of years of pride, strength and endurance of the
Wook-koo legend and local Aboriginal tribe, the Butchulla people.
The Ringer, an earlier sculpture of
Kevin’s, won every competition it was entered in, including the prestigious
Dame Mary Durak Craft Award, held annually in Brisbane’s Queensland Museum.
A life-sized head and shoulders carving of a stockman sculpted in Australian
beech, The Ringer was sold for $9000 to the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame in Longreach. 
Full story OUTBACK Issue 35 June/July 2004
