INTRODUCTION

     Racquet games such as squash, tennis and real or royal tennis originally used racquets constructed from wood. Today wooden squash and tennis (lawn tennis) racquets are more likely to be found in second-hand stores than used on the court! In Royal tennis the tradition of wooden racquets has been maintained and these constitute the bulk of wooden racquets I manufacture. My interest in racquet manufacture grew out of my background in science and art and commenced when I joined the Hobart Real Tennis Club.

In the past wooden racquets were generally constructed from one species of Ash or another. Interestingly, even when wooden racquets were manufactured in Australia (into the 1970’s) they were generally constructed of imported Ash. The vast range of native Australian tree species remained unexplored for sporting goods manufacture.

Bluegum (Eucalyptus globulus) is the floral emblem of the island state of Tasmania. There are approximately 800 species of gum trees or eucalypts alone in Australia and the Bluegum is one of the largest and most impressive of these. Tasmania, in addition to being the home of unique animals such as the Tasmanian Devil and the thylacine (now sadly extinct) is also home to unique timbers such as Huon Pine (a rot proof timber renown for use in boat building) and Celery Top Pine. These timbers along with another gum species Eucalyptus regnans (the tallest hardwood tree in the world) are also used in my racquet construction.

BLUE GUM SWAMP GUM HUON PINE

MANUFACTURING PROCESS

SCULPTURES MADE FROM BROKEN RACQUETS

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