Flush with History | Fraser Coast Regional Council Public Art Collection

Illustration: Kelli McGregor, Tools of the Trade 2020, charcoal on board. © the artist.

Opening their doors at Adelaide Street in 1918, Cree and McCullough began trading at a time when the world was at war, steamships were leaving the port of Maryborough transporting cargo to Brisbane and Finneys was selling the latest British-made corset to the ladies.
Crawford Cree and David McCullough were plumbers, tinsmiths and sheet metal workers. They fabricated items for local councils such as rubbish bins and the all-important night tins that were used in outhouses prior to the introduction of sewerage systems. They also designed and produced the extraction flues and ducting for the local sawmills and meat works and manufactured rainwater tanks and window shades.

On 21 June 1941, the Maryborough Chronicle wrote, “Some of the largest plumbing jobs in the city have been successfully undertaken by this firm... Cree and McCullough are prepared to attend any job large or small with the same degree of personal interest and attention, and the same degree of expert workmanship.”

Plumbers Ron Ellis & Ernie Rogers. Photo Courtesy Cree & McCullough Plumbing.

Moving up the street to their premises at 136 Adelaide Street in 1924 they expanded their business selling an array of stoves and other household items from the shopfront. A 1930s advertisement stated: ‘A Splendid Display of Stoves’, with another selling ‘Enamel Baths, Sinks, Wash Basins, Concrete Tubs’ and in the 1940s, Cree and McCullough boasted to sell ‘Home Beauty in Stoves!’

In recognition of Cree and McCullough’s contributions to Maryborough’s rich history, local artist Kelli McGregor created a concept for the bronzes that now lie scattered on a plinth outside the Adelaide Street shopfront. The concepts were sculpted by Mela Cooke and Phillip Perides cast the works in bronze. Kelli’s concept drawing, featured on the cover of Scene magazine, was inspired by the iron darkened with age and weather. “Old tools feel like the past frozen in a black and white photo, so charcoal seemed the perfect medium to portray the concept I had in mind,” Kelli said. 
Kelli has been a regular participant in local public art projects having created concepts for other bronzes in Maryborough’s CBD. “The Fraser Coast Regional Council provides creative opportunities for professional artists to showcase their talents, build their profiles and expand their artistic practices.”
 

Artwork: Mela Cooke, Tools of the Trade 2020, bronze sculpture, Fraser Coast Regional Council Public Art Collection. Photo: Dan Walker