The annual waves of student project groups from the Deakin Architecture School passed through Timberzoo last month and purchased various sizes and species for their special projects. I like seeing the students every year. Their sense of wonder. Amazement and confusion is written on their faces. The brave haggle away, testing wits. Unnecessarily, of course. I like to look after students. In a couple of years they’ll be clients. An early love of recycled timbers is a thing to be nurtured. It’s the quieter ones I like to observe. The looking at, the touching, the ‘wow’ thing. It’s a timber story in its own right.

I had a ‘special’ ready for them and the Tea House group jumped on it first. They fetched a trailer and cleaned me out. Good on them for appreciating a bargain - but also for the use they put it to. I love their recycled timber screen-walled Tea House. Wish I’d bought it back from them!

Called in at Barwon Heads famous jetty and its café on a recent afternoon for a coffee and couldn’t help admiring its fabulous floors. I remember sourcing some reclaimed Tasmanian Oak for them years back to effect repairs and additions. It looks as ancient as the leather chesterfields but in no way diminished. It is tenacious stuff, timber, and will continue to provide service here in coming decades. A lesson for designers: in any modernisation or make-over of buildings put to public use or function - a reclaimed hardwood floor will provide the instant age  factor. The foil to the sleek metro aspects of the project.

The price you pay for this is generally low, as supply of product is consistent due to ten uninterrupted years of frantic urban renewal. We currently have:

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