"This is the remnants of the greatest tree I've ever seen in my life. The Oak tree was bigger than the farmhouse itself, [and] we used to call it "The Faraway tree".
"It was one of the most extraordinary trees to climb as a child, it had the biggest branches and the hugest trunk..[and, ah] there was probably three, four, five or six of us that used to climb it at any one time...and we used to play all the different characters from The Magic Faraway Tree book, 'Moon Face', 'Mrs Pops' ... all those mad characters from Enid Blyton..'
"[But] it's really quite emotional coming back to this place, [um] because my father sold it ten years ago, and ah, I'd heard that the tree had collapsed, so it's been quite amazing to come back...to Taggerty.."
Christian Wagstaff is a Melbourne based Creative Director who's incredible work spans that of art projects, film and television, live theatre, special events, attractions and interior design projects.
When we invited Christian to spend TIME WITH JOAN he chose the magical remains of the old Oak tree at Taggerty House "The Farm" (his childhood getaway) as the backdrop for our insight into what shaped his own creativity.
Christian Wagstaff is the son of acclaimed Director of Photography Keith Wagstaff (Man from Snowy River, Wild Horses, The Anzacs) Keith "Waggers" Wagstaff started his career in the lab of the family owned business Cineservice in 1953.
During our shoot (on this very windy day in Taggerty) there was a unique presence of love of family, respect, and inherent creativity. Opportunity to play freely in these extremely historic surroundings bare testament to creative growth, story telling, make believe and the purity and good fortune of being 'Born Free'.
"We were allowed to as kids, roam around the house and do whatever we wanted [pretty much].. when my parents bought the property I remember my step mother saying when they came and viewed the house the corridors of the house were so wide and beautiful old timber structures, there was cattle actually walking through the house...it had been vacated for a couple of decades.."
"We were allowed to paint rooms. At one stage there was a room where we had a beautiful box window at the back of it that overlooked [actually] the Oak tree in the distance. We set it up as a little theatre using old bedspreads a and rickety old furniture... we'd paint the rooms and paint the scenes and hang up drapes and do little shows for our parents."
"Crown announced that they were opening and were going to have theatres and entertainment.. I remember thinking I must get a job there, I have to... (at the interview) I had a beautiful Top hat made that was absolute perfection... and a beautiful set of tails, most beautiful cherry red wool fabric, like the Ring Master outfit Marlene Dietrich wore... they said "have you made this?" I said "no", but I directed someone to make this, that's why they are so beautiful... and I got the job."
"Just keep walking... they're more scared of us than we are of them" (Virginia Dowzer)
"Actually, I'm scared" (Bronwyn Kidd)
Around fifteen young (so they said) Black Angus surrounded us from the front, and another fifteen from the back, like a wave in the ocean that seems so much bigger than you.... were we going to survive this trip to Taggerty?
... Thankfully, Virginia was right...' just keep walking'.
Christian Wagstaff
facebook.com/creativeproductionservices
youtube.com/user/CPS011
creativeproductionservices.com.au
Contributing Visual Director
Virginia Dowzer
virginiadowzer@bigpond.com
Tumblr- virginiadowzer
Instagram - Virginia Dowzer
