Festive spirit takes shape

By Owen Sinclair

Nov 29, 2024

Students at Bluebird Kindergarten were all too happy to smile for the camera alongside their Christmas cut-outs. From left, back: Ruby Anderson, 5, Rilie Sarre, 5, and Remi Tomlinson, 4. Front: Lucy Jarratt, 4, Trae Toohey, 5, and Remi Miles, 5. Photo by Owen Sinclair

It isn’t yet December, but Cobram is already beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

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For the past four months, local woodworkers and artists have been busy behind the scenes crafting wooden cut-outs for businesses and groups across Cobram-Barooga.

Starting from Friday, November 29, volunteers from community arts group Arts for All will be distributing up to 50 Christmas-themed cut-outs to locations across the community.

Each cut-out was assembled in tandem with the Cobram Men’s Shed, where volunteers designed and executed the shape and form of each piece with the assistance of a CNC 6090 router.

Men’s shed vice-president Alan Ransley said the router is a much-loved piece of equipment in the workshop.

The two groups - Arts for All and the Cobram Mens’ Shed - are no strangers to pooling their resources for community projects.

Residents may be familiar with a similar project during Easter this year, when Arts for All teamed up with the men’s shed to craft and distribute colourful bunnies across the community.

The project was a hit with local businesses and the community alike.

Arts for All president June Wood said it was fantastic to team up with the men’s shed on the project once again.

“The businesses responded so well to the Easter one that we said ‘Let’s do Christmas’,” Mrs Wood said.

Each cut out was painstakingly prepared by volunteers at the men’s shed before Arts for All volunteers took to their palettes of paints to bring the characters to life.

The Courier dropped by to capture some of the excitement as the festive season approaches.