Emily
Maguire used to write songs in a flat in London until
one day she’d had enough of grey skies and concrete
and, refusing to give up her guitar for a proper job,
she got on a plane to see what life looked like from
the other side of the world. She spent the next four
years living on a goat farm in the Australian bush,
dodging snakes and spiders in a shack built by her
partner, bass player and producer Christian Dunham.
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The
farm is situated up a dirt track in the beautiful
Obi Obi valley, SE Queensland. The valley used to
be a sacred meeting place for Aboriginal tribes from
all over the East Coast and beyond. The shack
is built around 9 tree trunks, using recycled corrugated
iron, wood and rendered potato sacks for the walls.
It
is surrounded by an orchard of citrus trees, lychees
and macadamia nut trees. |
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All
the timber was recycled from cleared native forest,
and milled and sanded by hand. The fireplace is made
out of a 44 gallon drum. All the furniture is either
hand-made or recycled. The kitchen has open shelves
to minimise places for snakes to hide. Called
'Shaktu' as it's shack no.2 on the farm (shack 1 was
the original building on the land). Total cost so
far: £1500. |
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Up
the bank from the shack is Emily's yurt which was
built in a day and a night during a cyclone as a birthday
present for her. The corrugated iron walls and roof
of the yurt are over 100 years old, recycled from
the local village post office. She
uses it to do her Buddhist practice and to write songs.
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Photos
copyright: Anthony Paine |
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For
more information or an interview, please contact:
philip@doublemono.com
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