ANDREW Whitehead thanks his lucky stars that his family were terrible hoarders of junk.
Andrew, a plant operator from Urana, in the NSW Riverina, has found his niche, turning scrap metal into farm animals and wildlife.
"My family never threw any metal away and I've raided their places," he says.
"And my workmates at the Urana Shire council give me pieces as well.
"There was an old fire-fighting tank rusting away in the paddock and I had been driving past it for 20 years.
"I decided to do something silly and make a giant cow out of it."
The cow was so impressive Andrew was prompted to enter it in the farm art competition at the Spirit of the Land festival in Lockhart, NSW.
Weighing half a tonne, the cow was made with fold-up legs so it could be transported on a special trailer.
Scooping an award for unique large sculpture, from that moment, Andrew was hooked on his new hobby.
After a 20-year career in the army, he completed an adult apprenticeship as a mechanic with the Urana Shire, learning how to weld.
Now aspiring to be a professional artist, Andrew has decorated the entrance to his 100ha farm with quirky metal sculptures of a kangaroo, spider and catapult.
The 250kg kangaroo and her joey, called Roobot, took "four months and 30 slabs of beer to make".
The sculpture is made from a long list of spare parts, including cogs off a combine, an engine wheel, steering boxes, plough linkage, a tow ball, shearing combs, truck brake-lining, ag bike indicators, a cement mixer and trolley jacks.
"I spend a lot of time planning and drawing the sculptures and solving engineering problems in my sleep," Andrew says.
"It's a really great hobby. We get lots of visitors coming by to see the sculptures."
Andrew has entered his sculptures in this year's Spirit of the Land $15,000 national farm art awards.
The Spirit of the Land festival is on this Friday-Sunday.
