Australian Eucalypt Collection: Ron explores this copper coated collection on the Eyre Peninsula in the West Coast region of South Australia

Eyre Peninsula offers many secluded and quiet seaside towns where holiday makers can recharge the batteries. And there's none better than picturesque Port Neill, 560 kilometres from Adelaide.

It's the ideal spot for a family holiday and of course most days you'll find someone wetting a line on the local jetty. Happy days indeed, but with time, the memories can sometimes fade so a couple of local blokes have come up with the ideal solution. A copper sulphate solution in fact combined with a few other chemicals and a DC electrical charge.

In a backyard shed we watched Glen Brown electroplate a string of gum leaves. And as soon as they see the light of day they glisten with a copper plated glow.

Glen Brown: "You've got a positive and negative. It's like a giant torch. As soon as you put that in there the copper goes from here onto there in really small particles. And it takes quite a while to build up."

The gum leaves are part of the ever-expanding Australian Eucalypt Collection. Head across the road to the showroom where Glen and partner Dean White have been working their magic for ten years now and you can buy an array of electroplated natural objects.

Dean White, Australian Eucalypt Collection: "Our major collection is called the Australian Eucalypt Collection which comprises the whole range of things made from gum leaves and gum nuts. We also make a huge range of jewellery, ear rings, wine ware, tableware. We also create the Australian Coastal Collection which is electroplated seahorses, star fish and shells."

Framed pieces of copper plated memorabilia are proving popular and the range is endless. Just find an emotional connection for anything with a hard outer surface and you can electroplate it forever. Some local farmers have even had sheefs of wheat copper plated.

Star fish, gum nuts, eucalypt leaves - they can all undergo an electroplated metamorphosis. And for some, the memories are immortalised in copper - from top to toe.

Dean White, Australian Eucalypt Collection: "A lady brought us a pair of old drover's boots and she told us that she had told her husband who had just died, that no-one else was going to park their boots under her bed. And so she had his boots plated and parked them under her bed. We didn't have the heart to charge her."

The Australian Eucalypt Collection is located at 32 Wallis Street Port Neill. It's open Monday to Friday. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au

The Australian Eucalypt Collection
32 Wallis Street
Port Neill
Eyre Peninsula

Open Monday to Friday

Published 1st Nov 2009