A place where imagination finds its home

Artwork: Frank Van Brunschot and Thomas O'Dowd, 17 Cherry Tree Lane 2019, mixed materials and digital projection. © The artists. Photo: Kelli Sauer.

In the corner of the room where Mary Poppins author PL Travers was born is a doll’s house that can transport you to a magical place where, as Mary Poppins once said, “anything can happen if you let it”.

Mary Poppins characters are brought to life through animations by Thomas O’Dowd as they wondrously move throughout the miniature timber house crafted by Frank Van Brunschot.

With a background in cabinetmaking and visual arts, Frank’s unusual combination of skills were well suited to the intricate creation of the fanciful timber house. “My background is in cabinetmaking, starting my apprenticeship at fourteen, working on custom-made pieces and restoring antique furniture. In my mid-twenties I started to re-explore painting and drawing and in 2000 I commences a visual arts degree (painting workshop) at the Australian National University, Canberra,” Frank said.

“Growing up, stories of times gone by always sparked my imagination, which was then expressed through visual arts and craft,” Frank Van Brunschot. 

Animator Thomas O’Dowd speaks of his inspiration behind the animations in the house. “My central aim with The Story Bank animations was to bring the magic of the stories to life. With the doll’s house, the effect I wanted to create was a snapshot of the Mary Poppins world, where people can see the everyday comings-and-goings of the Banks household. Our goal was to make the story to leap out of the words into a tangible and visual world.”

"With my animations, I wanted to take just a little bit of that Mary Poppins magic, and bring it into reality."

View the doll’s house for yourself at The Story Bank. Open weekdays from 9.30am-3.30pm or weekends and public holidays from 9.30am-2pm. Book online at www.maryboroughstorybank.com.au.