What Is Woodcraft Adventures?
Woodcraft Adventures is more than a workshop, a brand, or a collection of wooden products.
It is a microenterprise builder — a long-standing project dedicated to supporting people with a disability to create meaningful work, build a business, and express their craft in a way that is entirely their own.
I began this journey in 1995, on the very same day I finished my economics degree at La Trobe University, Bendigo. What started as a simple idea — that people with a disability deserve real opportunities, real self-determination, and real economic participation — has grown into a lifelong commitment. And I’m still working on it.
A Rights-Based, Ethical, Craft-Driven Enterprise
At its heart, Woodcraft Adventures is a moral and ethical project.
It is rights-based, charitable, environmentally respectful, and grounded in the belief that high-quality Tasmanian craft can change lives.
We use rare, repurposed Tasmanian timbers, shaping them into beautiful, durable products for tourists, locals, and collectors. But the real work — the most important work — is what happens with the people who make them.
This project offers:
- Self-directed progression
- Meaningful, creative employment
- A supported pathway into microenterprise
- A safe and positive environment to learn at your own pace
It is for myself, and it is for others. We learn together, build together, and grow together.
How It Works: Stages of Craft and Business
Participants can choose from a range of commercially viable products I have designed, or they can design their own. Every person enters at the stage they feel comfortable with, and every step forward is based only on their own desire and motivation.
1. DESIGN (The Creative Blueprint)
Before any piece of wood is touched, there is the act of imagining.
Participants can:
- create their own product concept
- adapt an existing design
- choose from the library of commercial designs already proven to sell
- sketch, model, or storyboard their idea
- learn how form, function, timber type, and market appeal fit together
Design is a stage of empowerment — a place where creativity, identity, and confidence begin to take shape.
2. Manufacturing Stages
Once a design is chosen or created, participants move (at their own pace) into the hands-on craft.
(a) Wood Collection
Choosing, salvaging, and preparing sustainably repurposed Tasmanian timbers.
(b) Machining
Turning raw stock into usable blanks and shaped components.
(c) Hand Work
Carving, detailing, refining edges, sanding — the intimate part of making.
(d) Finishing
Applying oils, polishes, engraving, and preparing each item for sale-quality presentation.
3. Sales and Promotion
When participants wish to develop the business side, Woodcraft Adventures offers a supported pathway:
- pricing their own products
- preparing items for markets, shops, or online platforms
- learning how to photograph, write about, and present their craft
- telling their personal story ethically and respectfully
- earning income in a way that matches their capacity, goals, and circumstances
Every step is optional.
Every step is self-directed.
People Who Define the Project
Priscilla: A Model Microenterprise
Priscilla is one of the most inspiring examples of what Woodcraft Adventures can be.
Her work includes:
- hand-carved wooden animals
- spatulas
- key-rings
- small decorative boxes
She chooses her own pace, style, and focus — her craft is an expression of who she is, and a viable business in its own right.
Pete: Craft as Stability and Strength
Pete supported Woodcraft Adventures in sanding, sales, advice, and general workshop work.
But for him, the microenterprise builder didn’t function mainly as self-employment — it functioned as special-conditions employment, offering structure, identity, and purpose during a time of deep hardship.
While working night-shift cleaning across the state — and navigating periods of homelessness — Pete used this project as a stable point in a life full of uncertainty. His contribution helped shape the project into what it is today.
Why It Matters
Woodcraft Adventures stands at the intersection of:
- disability rights
- economic participation
- Tasmanian craft heritage
- environmental responsibility
- personal dignity
- community inclusion
Every product has a story.
Every craftsperson has a voice.
Every stage of the project is designed to empower the people who participate in it — not just as workers, but as artists, entrepreneurs, and contributors to the Tasmanian economy and culture.
Still Growing After All These Years
Three decades on, Woodcraft Adventures continues to evolve.
The vision remains the same:
To support people with a disability to build real businesses, develop real skills, and create real, beautiful products that honour Tasmania’s unique timbers and unique people.
This is my life’s work — and it is work I am proud to share
Woodcraft Adventures: Built on a Lifetime of Craft, Community, and Creative Microenterprises
Woodcraft Adventures isn’t just a small business — it’s the living, breathing result of a lifelong project I call the Microenterprise Builder: a way of helping people with a disability discover their craft, build their confidence, and grow a business that is truly their own.
Today, Woodcraft Adventures is beautifully represented by Priscilla — the model example. She works hands-on with wooden animals, spatulas, key-rings and small boxes, shaping each piece with quiet dedication. Pete is another example: he contributed to Woodcraft Adventures through sales, sanding and advising. He used Microenterprise Builder not so much for self-employment, but for empowerment — participating, learning, and contributing in a way that worked for him.
To reach this stage, this work grew through three major sub-projects, each one laying a foundation for the next.
1. RUSTIX – The Mountain Years (Origins of the Craft)
Rustix was where everything began — high on a Tasmanian mountain, living deep in the bush and building a life around rustic design, slow craft, and creative freedom.
In that season, I built and designed rustic pieces using methods shaped by nature itself: raw timbers, bush textures, natural curves. I sold these works and small wooden models at markets across Tasmania, and eventually sent pieces nationally and internationally.
Rustix wasn’t just a business; it was an identity. It was Tasmania’s wilderness teaching me how to build with simplicity and honesty — a foundation that still shapes Woodcraft Adventures today.
2. The Cognitive Factory – Innovation for Brain-Impaired Woodworkers
After time spent in other arts — ballroom dancing and historical travel across Australia — I established a new business based on one powerful question:
How can someone with significant cognitive or physical impairments do woodwork independently?
From that question came The Cognitive Factory.
I designed a system where a person could complete woodwork using minimal movement — even just one body part, like a single arm. The breakthrough came when I discovered a particular timber soft enough that a small nail could be simply pressed in and would stand upright on its own.
This changed everything.
Participants with brain injuries, who struggled with most fine-motor tasks, suddenly showed perfect eye-to-hand accuracy. They could hammer independently — and they were dead on. The pride, the joy, the transformation… it was miraculous.
Together we built boxes, and eventually they designed their own products. This wasn’t therapy — it was craftsmanship with dignity.
3. Woodcraft Warriors – A Psychosocial Woodworking Hub
The next step was creating a woodcraft workshop inside a psychosocial centre — a mental health project called Woodcraft Warriors.
The unique thing about this project was motivation. Many participants had extremely low motivation, but something surprising happened:
they were inspired simply by watching, sharing, laughing, and being part of the energy in the room.
We invited staff, outside people, and able clients to do the hands-on work. Mental health participants absorbed the creative energy — the movement, the noise, the sense of purpose — and it lifted them. Sometimes they worked. Sometimes they watched. All of it was healing.
From this one workshop, a whole ecosystem of new projects was born at the centre.
A rock band — Mentally Healthy As Anything — grew from the same energy. Staff (especially Eve, who was the key driver) helped initiate a range of new corporate-style projects. Creativity fed creativity.
Woodcraft Warriors became a community where motivation grew simply by being part of something alive.
4. DESIGN – The Stage That Brought It All Together
The final step before Woodcraft Adventures took shape was the Design Stage — the point where all the previous experiences converged. Rustic mountain craft, adaptive systems for people with disabilities, and psychosocial creative energy all blended together.
Design became not just about products — but about building systems where anyone could contribute, create, and belong.
It was the stage where Microenterprise Builder matured into a full concept:
a pathway that helps people with a disability turn their craft into a real business.
