Email: bambooyurts@yahoo.com.au Mobile: 0415 303 573
ABN: 68 969 212 101
I started working with bamboo in 1989. I came from a traditional hardwood building background; bearers, joists, stud frames, etc, where it was very important to get everything square and straight. Bamboo building is not like that. Bamboo is a simple, beautifull, flexible material that you can grow in your yard. It's also light and easy on your back. You can harvest (log), cut (mill), treat and build with a very small tool kit. You don't need any large, heavy machinery and the bamboo can be transported on your roof rack.
In the nineties we were making small, fixed yurts and at the end of the century I came up with the concept of flexible polypipe joiners for demountable yurts. In 2000 I started the first experiments which showed the potential of the concept. The polyjoiners went through a development process to become what they are today; a very strong, simple, 3 dimensionally flexing joiner that makes these yurts easy and quick to assemble .
Yurts are portables homes that have been used in Mongolia and Siberia for 100s of years. Their round shape helps them to stand firm in strong winds. The Bamboo Demountable Yurts use light and strong bamboo poles for the frames and peg firmly down to the ground. They have no guy ropes to trip over as the pegs go in at the base of the triangular wall frames.
I now live near Maclean, between Ballina and Grafton on the central east coast of Australia. I put up my Big Shade each month at the Yamba Market, supply bamboo yurts for a number of festivals, weddings and parties, and work on one or two bamboo building projects each year.
Tibetan monks making a sand mandala in the 10m yurt at Bellingen Global Carnival.
Testimonial, July 2007
To whom it may concern,
I am writing this testimonial in my capacity as the director of the “Surfing The Coldstream” Festival as well as the chairman of The Clarence Coast Cultural Committee & Live Prawn Productions, both non-profit associations. In addition I am also drawing upon over 20 years of experience as an international street theatre performer and 12 years of outdoor festival & event production and management ranging from small local fairs to the Sydney Olympics both in Australia and overseas.
Part of the pleasure of organising large-scale festivals are the various new characters and friends one makes in the process and Donnie Corben was a wonderful find. His unique bamboo yurts were of enormous value to the “Surfing The Coldstream” Festival. These highly originally designed structures provided shade from the sun for workshops and festivalgoers in 2005, and shelter for audiences and the main music stage from severely wet and windy weather in the 2006 edition. Invaluable as they were as instant structures for a multitude of uses, they also provided a great “look” and “feel” to these events giving our festival sites an entrancing visual from a distance.
Donnie has been a great pleasure to deal with. Reliable, punctual and totally self-contained, at both of these festivals he gave so much of himself that he became a very valuable part of our production team.
He fully understands all the various aspects (stage production, environmental, legal, etc) involved in such undertakings. In all honesty I could not imagine running another “Surfing The Coldstream” without his support and ever-positive grin in the vicinity.
Should anyone reading this document require further explanation of anything mentioned, please do not hesitate to visit the websites below or to contact me on either 6646-1457 or 6646-3477 during business hours.
Kind regards
Dom Ferry
Director - "Surfing The Coldstream" Arts/Fringe Festival.
Chairman - Clarence Coast Cultural Committee / Live Prawn Productions
www.surfingthecoldstream.com / www.dom.zip.com.au
I am writing this testimonial in my capacity as the director of the “Surfing The Coldstream” Festival as well as the chairman of The Clarence Coast Cultural Committee & Live Prawn Productions, both non-profit associations. In addition I am also drawing upon over 20 years of experience as an international street theatre performer and 12 years of outdoor festival & event production and management ranging from small local fairs to the Sydney Olympics both in Australia and overseas.
Part of the pleasure of organising large-scale festivals are the various new characters and friends one makes in the process and Donnie Corben was a wonderful find. His unique bamboo yurts were of enormous value to the “Surfing The Coldstream” Festival. These highly originally designed structures provided shade from the sun for workshops and festivalgoers in 2005, and shelter for audiences and the main music stage from severely wet and windy weather in the 2006 edition. Invaluable as they were as instant structures for a multitude of uses, they also provided a great “look” and “feel” to these events giving our festival sites an entrancing visual from a distance.
Donnie has been a great pleasure to deal with. Reliable, punctual and totally self-contained, at both of these festivals he gave so much of himself that he became a very valuable part of our production team.
He fully understands all the various aspects (stage production, environmental, legal, etc) involved in such undertakings. In all honesty I could not imagine running another “Surfing The Coldstream” without his support and ever-positive grin in the vicinity.
Should anyone reading this document require further explanation of anything mentioned, please do not hesitate to visit the websites below or to contact me on either 6646-1457 or 6646-3477 during business hours.
Kind regards
Dom Ferry
Director - "Surfing The Coldstream" Arts/Fringe Festival.
Chairman - Clarence Coast Cultural Committee / Live Prawn Productions
www.surfingthecoldstream.com / www.dom.zip.com.au
