Our idyllic childhood was split between Sydney and the Monaro region. The experiences in both regions shaped our understanding of the different attitudes and way of life between country and city folk. In the city of Sydney, where suburbs meet skyscrapers. Notoriety, good deeds and local legends usually spread as far as the gutter flows, the noisey echo chamber of ambition and greed drowns thousands of stories everyday, very few filter through. The race to the top and free for all mentality dissolves many of the opportunities to strengthen community, people are driven by self interest not able to weigh others needs before their own most times.
In the Monaro your ambition can grow as tall as you want it, limited only by your resourcefulness, which if you're home grown, is in plentiful supply. For a town and area where people are spread far and wide with kilometres between each other, the people of the area couldn't be closer. One another extending an arm out to help and coming together in force to solve issues that may only affect an individual, a simple thing like lending a tractor to a neighbour, which may seem small but most tractors cost more than the average sports car, and you wouldn't usually lend that to your neighbour to use in the big smoke let alone with the big chance it may get a scratch or two.
Our choice to represent the Snowy Monaro area in our first collection was an easy decision for us, experiencing first hand the kindness people display for no return and meeting the local legends opened our eyes to the attraction of living in the countryside. Spending half our childhood in the area may have contributed to a bias towards the area but it's safe to say an area that sees 1.5 million+ visitors a year is loved equally by everyone.
We thought not only the beauty of the area had to be recognized but certain people whose unwavering commitment to serving the area whether it be through an service based industry or provocation of laughter, these legends would otherwise go unnoticed in the bigger picture and fade into the past, but they deserve more.