HISTORY of the JUNGLE CHALET ART, CRAFT & WATERGARDEN EXHIBITIONS:

The Jungle Chalet Art, Craft & Watergarden Exhibitions began with a 2 consecutive weekend exhibition in 2001. At the time, Don was going through a traumatic & soul destroying divorce, that was totally unexpected. Don has always been a vibrant performer & artist, but this experience caused him to [luckily] temporally loose his sense of humour. In order to cope, at the time, he turned to a new & stimulating venture. He built an Art Room to supplement his leadlight studio & the Jungle Chalet Exhibitions were born.

The first exhibition was held in the the Jungle Chalet house & also on the deck. The 2nd exhibition was held in the garage & the new Art Room underneath. There was a particularly hair-raising start to this exhibition, as right up until Opening time Don was worried the exhibition space wouldn't have any walls to hang the artwork. The glass walls were several days late arriving & when they duly arrived at 2 pm on Opening day, it was a mad scramble to get them in placeÉ.so much so that the exhibiting artists grabbed a broom & helped clean up whilst hanging the paintings, moments before the first guests arrived. Fortunately theatrical chaos turned into a wonderful exhibition.

Early exhibitions featured Don Murchison's headlights, along with a fine selection of other talented artists who contributed to a group exhibition. The Jungle Chalet Exhibitions showcase local, National & sometimes an International guest artist. They provide an opportunity for artists to exhibit in this unique rainforest environment just 10 kilometres from the Sydney CBD. Some artists have used this opportunity as a way of introducing their artworks to leading galleries & curators in Sydney.

Always one for evolving & re-inventing his artistic directions, Don soon found something was missing from the Jungle Chalet - an outdoor artscape, along with a waterfeature. The Hercules Falls along with the Feeder Pond were the first addition as the Upper Watergarden took shape. A particularly ugly & inappropriate development next door has caused devastation to all the bushland on one side. This almost caused Don to sell out, especially since many of the neighbours & residents in the area had tried to save this block of bushland as a Greenwich Rainforest Reserve. Somehow a concrete jungle in a natural jungle just did not fit. However so much artistic work had gone into making the Jungle Chalet unique, that Don hung in there & decided, in his own creative way, to create something that was beautiful to look at & hopefully take the pain out of the peripheral vision of a devastating, ugly & alien development.

One creation lead to another & soon Don penned the term HYGROMORPHOMATICS, to replicate nature & describe the artistic harvesting of rainwater to create artificial streams, ponds & waterfalls. From 2005 until 2010, each annual exhibition saw the official opening of another outdoor artistic installation, in the form of a water feature. We were fortunate to have the Mayor that the time, Ian Longbottom, open several of these exhibitions. So the Viagra Falls soon lead to the Coleridge Falls & Lake Coleridge, which in turn drained into the Reservoir Illusion. However one thing was missingÉthe outdoor sculpture! Don had been to China on several occasions by then & marvelled at the artistic ability of the talented craftspeople. On one occasion he travelled on the back of a motor bike, after the taxi refused to travel any further into the countryside hours out of Xiamen. He arrived at a fascination sculpture studio business, Haoxiang. Around the same time he also met the artists from Timbron.

It wasn't long before Don commissioned a selection of marvellous marble sculpture from Huang & Timbron. They duly arrived in a container & were off-loaded by a crane to the driveway. This posed the next challenge. How to get the sculpture to their final rating place, which was way down below the house, in the rainforest setting! A beefy crew of removalists helped to relocate the lighter sculptures, but no one would attempt the crocodile, gorilla, lady in the palm of the hand, lady in the hammock or the kissing couple! Despite vying for quotes, from removalists, then piano removalists, tombstone removalists & finally a group of TongansÉno quote was forthcoming! There were only two options left - a massive crane or a helicopter! The problem with the crane was that high voltage power lines needed to be turned off, with approval from Sydney Electricity as well as Council, & even then the cost of a crane with such a long reach, was as much as a helicopter. A helicopter was the easiest option, as it just necessitated the approval of the police & the Lane Cove Council to close off part of the road & to book independent traffic wardens. The only thing left was to increase the mortgage on the house to pay for it all ~!!! This done, with thanks to the Chatswood Police, who kindly supervised, & Council, the road was closed for about an hour & in 20 minutes the job was completed, entertaining many in the neighbourhood.

In 2010 Don discovered one thing was still missing - an elephant. So with the theme for the 2010 exhibition being, "Every Home Needs An Elephant"ÉDon commissioned another sculpture from Timbron. This time there was no helicopter to get it down. What an effort it was!!! - Utilising techniques evolved by the ancient Egyptians - with ropes, pulleys, long planks, a block & tackle from the trees & several people with incredible brawn, after more than half a day of labour the elephant finally arrived at its resting place. Now the elephant happily spouts water & has the occasional wee, to the amusement of visitors to the exhibitions. No wonder the theme for the 2011 exhibition was "Beyond the Horizon."

For the past 6 years the Jungle Chalet Art, Craft & Watergarden Exhibition has been an event in the Lane Cove Council's Cameraygal Festival, which can be viewed on the Council website & also the brochure delivered to all houses in the municipality. For the past 3 years the Jungle Chalet Art, Craft & Watergarden Exhibition has also featured in the neighbouring Willoughby Council's Open Studio Weekend, which is part of the Willoughby Spring Festival. We are fortunate to have the support of local politicians who have opened each exhibition to date - Mayors - especially Councillor Longbottom [who is also patron of the Lane Cove Art Society], a previous Leader of the Opposition - Kerry Chicarovsky, & the present NSW Minister of Fair Trading, the Hon. Anthony Roberts [who also opened the first exhibition when he was Mayor of Lane Cove.]

The 2012 Exhibition will be held in August - September, with the exact date yet to be determined. Expressions of interest are being accepted from artists who would like to exhibit as part of this group exhibition. The theme for the 2012 Jungle Chalet Art, Craft & Watergarden Exhibition will be: "INSPIRED BY NATURE."

• Click here to read the history of the Reservoir Illusion & flying sculpture.

To read about the 2011 EXHIBITION & WATERGARDEN ARTSPACE DISPLAY in detail, please click on:

• Click here to read about the ART ROOM Exhibition & all about exhibiting artists.
• Click here to read about the WATERGARDEN, Sculptured Rainforest Walk & Artscape [with colourful lights at night.]

ADDRESS:

JUNGLE CHALET
Valleyview Glen,
Corner Innes Rd & Valley View Crescent,
GREENWICH,
SYDNEY, NSW, 2065.
AUSTRALIA.

This page was last amended 9.11.2011.