Labour of love captures pioneering spirit
WATER diviner, rock blaster, carpenter, house builder, environmental activist.
Jim Hennell has had a significant impact on Buderim during the 60 years he has lived in the region.
A man of the elements, his passions in life are rock, water and wood.
He has made his mark on Buderim's infrastructure by opening up rock for drainage and sewerage lines, electricity poles, swimming pools, roads and driveways.
With timber, his method is old-fashioned. His attention to detail extreme.
The aim is to build to last. Walls that can't be knocked down, hand-built doors that still swing open 50 years on.
His creative and technical skills have more recently turned to a generation with just a few years on him - Buderim's Living Legends.
Despite Mr Hennell's 60 years of continual residence, he is not officially a Living Legend as he moved with his parents to farm a pocket of
Buderim land in 1952.
But determined to make a personal contribution to the B150 celebration, he began work on a secret mission, labouring in his workshop for the past 15 months.
With an eye over his shoulder - as most of the Legends are friends who drop by his place regularly - Mr Hennell secretly crafted 50 timber plaques, engraved with each individual's name and embellished with the famous Buderim Poinciana motif.
More than plaques, they are heirloom pieces to be passed on to future generations.
His medium was red cedar. A tree he felled himself 38 years ago in his work as a timber cutter and arborist.
The species is a poignant nod to the forests of native trees that cloaked the mountain in the days before white settlement.
Mr Hennell was invited to personally present the plaques at B150's crowning event yesterday - a commemorative lunch in honour of the Living Legends.
The presentation was a job he took reluctantly.
"They're all friends," he said, by way of explanation.
Little do the happy recipients know that he carefully matched the grain of wood with their characters.
The making of the plaques was described by B150 chairman and spokesman Simon Whittle as an "amazing unsolicited gesture of love and kindness."
The act of generosity will stand as one of the highlights of the B150 year.
