The whale vomit and the enchanted forest

There is no known connection between a sperm whale and a dream home in the forest, but for Peter Cook there is a very close relationship.

     In the mid-eighties, Peter Cook, a jeweller was living in Hervey Bay and dreaming about a home in the mountains.  One day he took his horses for a run on Fraser Island and while walking on the beach he encountered a massive, brown, stinky lump. Most people would have written it off as a massive, brown, stinky lump, but Pete immediately recognised the mass as ambergris, colloquially known as ‘whale vomit.’ 
     Paul Jennings wrote about ambergris in the delightfully smelly children's short story, Greensleeves.  But for something authoritative Christopher Kent refers to ambergris as ‘floating gold’ in Floating Gold: A Natural (and Unnatural) History or Ambergris.     
     Ambergris is the substance formed in a sperm whale's gut to coat indigestible matter like the cartilage from squid eaten, enabling it to be smoothly passed.  It is used to make perfumes such as Chanel No. 5 which makes it valuable.  Once expelled by the whale, the ambergris, coloured from dark brown to grey, depending on its age, bobs around on the ocean until it washes up on a beach to be found by a very lucky person.

     The 64 kilogram buoyant nugget netted Pete a cool $90,000 and the following year, he realised his dream to buy his home in the mountains near Warwick in south-east Queensland.  In the tranquil forest he was free to work on jewellery and other intricately carved treasures.

     A few years later Pete met Becky Northey who was keen to learn about jewellery making.  Pete and Becky became partners and not long after Pete was doodling on paper and creating patterns.  He had a light bulb moment for shaping a tree into a chair.

Pete's first chair design done in 1996, the same time as the design above.

     Tree shaping is not new.  It has been practised for hundreds of years by the Khasi people of north-east India through the creation of tree root bridges.  It’s a refreshingly simple process; the roots of giant banyan trees are guided across creeks and rivers on bamboo poles to join other banyan tree roots and form walkways for the people.

     Pete’s version of tree shaping was to guide the thin and flexible branches of the native wild plum tree along wire into shapes such as the chair, figures and Celtic-like patterns.  

    Pete and Becky have also created coffee tables.  The results are slow, several years, but spectacular and unique.

"I'll have a long black with a side of milk, thanks."

Becky and the dancing couple.

Pete and the scary man.

       A uniquely crafted tree needs a unique name.  Pete’s nickname has always been is ‘Pook’ as an abbreviation of P Cook so Pooktre became the perfect name for a perfectly crafted tree.

     Pooktre Forest has an enchanting quality with its figures and shapes and it was easy to spend hours walking between the trees, mesmerised by the circular shapes and twig-thin branches that curl in and around each other in a never-ending way.  And a little bewitching since it seemed the human-sized figures were moving, just slightly, each time I turned my back.

     Large Pooktres aren't the only focus for Pete and Becky.  They have developed tree shaping on a smaller and faster scale by crafting jewellery and most recently bonsai-style trees, perfect for inner city balconies or courtyards.

Becky wearing a Pooktre choker

     Pooktre designs debuted at the 2005 World Expo in Japan and Pete and Becky have since been known as world leaders in the craft of tree shaping. They have been interviewed by gardening and design publications such as inhabit and they have even featured in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.  They’ve got some exciting plans including a trip to Portugal in August with their two children.  Pete and Becky said they’d consider a move to Portugal which would mean they were closer to much of the tree shaping activity in Europe.

     Life in Portugal would be a long way from Pooktre Forest, but their home will always be waiting for them and it will always have that whacky, but special connection to a giant piece of a sperm whale waste.