Feature Article: John Piccoli, spanner sculptor

Over the years, many people passing through the picturesque town of Boort might have noticed some unusual metal sculptures along the main street.
Intrigued, many people have no doubt stopped to give the sculptures a closer look.
As they draw near, their eyes pick out a familiar shape, it’s a spanner, no, two spanners, no wait, hundreds of spanners, the whole sculpture is nothing but spanners of every shape and size.
These unique creations were all painstakingly crafted by lifelong Boort resident John Piccoli.
But the sculptures in town, commissioned by the local council, are just a fore-taste of John’s incredible artistic talent.
Visitors lucky enough to be able to visit John and his wife Sonia at their magnificent property, situated just a little way out of town, are in for a real treat.
Driving up the driveway, past endless strange looking and ancient farm machinery, two huge metal pillars, again made entirely from spanners, mark the entrance of John’s exceptional homestead.
Like a scene from the days of the Raj, peacocks flaunt their spectacular plumage as they amble through the grounds, seemingly oblivious to the array of imposing and spectacular metal sculptures scattered through the grounds.
Horses, bulls, fish, mermaids and men, all larger than life, inhabit the garden.
Their spectacular forms crafted from hundreds upon hundreds of alternately rusty brown and gleaming silver spanners.
John is only too happy to show a lucky visitor around his beguilingly beautiful property, which has belonged to his family, emigrants from Switzerland, since 1876.
Before long, visitors will hear the sound of John’s other great passion, the calls of dozens of rare and exotic birds he has collected and bred over many years.
John gets around his property on a rugged looking, off-road, electric wheelchair due to a severe attack of poliomyelitis in childhood which took the use of his legs.
Looking at the size of some of his largest sculptures, which stand over four metres tall and must weigh several hundred kilograms, the mind boggles at the skill and dedication needed to craft the massive and complicated objects.
John uses no plans for his sculptures instead he puts them together piece by piece according to an intangible design in his minds-eye.
“It all falls into place as I imagine it, I’ve got a form of autism that let’s me picture things in 3D, it’s a gift,” he said.
Despite their odd shaped constituent parts, the spanner sculptures are superbly proportioned, giving them a strangely life-like quality.
Looking at the quality and detail of the workmanship, you would expect John to have crafted his creative technique over a life-time.
Incredibly this is not so, John having only picked up the tools of his art, a welder and a grinder, late in life after his retirement eleven years ago.
Obsessively collecting old spanners from clearing sales and swap meets, John estimates that some of his larger sculptures contain several thousand dollars worth of old, sometimes rare and valuable spanners in them.
After a stroll through the sculpture garden John introduces visitors to his favourite pets, several large, rainbow coloured South American Macaws.
Once inside the large cage, John’s affection for the majestic birds is clearly evident as he hand feeds them walnuts, which they deftly crack open and devour with their imposing beaks.
John said he has been breeding and hand rearing birds all his life and his collection has grown over the years to include an incredible diversity of species.
“As a kid I would find chicks that had fallen out of their nests and hand rear them” he said.
The centrepiece of John’s bird collection is tucked away at the back of his property, a small orchard of fruit and nut trees completely enclosed in netting to form a huge aviary.
Upon entering the aviary visitors could be mistaken for thinking they had been transported back to the Garden of Eden, dozen of unusual and colourful bird are everywhere, nestling on braches and rustling in the undergrowth. Eggs of different shapes and sizes can be found scattered about the trees, many of which are laden with fruit or nuts beginning to form.
John said he has around 600 birds in the aviary but an exact head count would be difficult, finches, partridges, doves, canaries, ducks and quails are left to their own devices, making nests where they please.
The aviary was only constructed six years ago, but birds are not the only animals that John has been involved with.
“I’ve tried my hand at breeding camels for hair, as well as alpacas and deer. For a while it was rabbits and at one stage I was supplying turkeys for the Collingwood football club. I’ve dabbled in a few things” he said with a grin.
So what do you get for the bird fancier who has everything?
“I would love to get an African Grey parrot, they might not be spectacular to look at but they’re highly intelligent and can be taught to speak really well and even solve maths problems” he said.
Three years ago John opened his property to the public as part of the Loddon discovery tours program. Tour buses organised by the council take people from all over Victoria and Australia to visit some of treasures Loddon Shire has to offer.