The other person I saw buy some that day was a guy around my age and he had his wife and new born with him. He's a member of "The Workshop"...his name escapes me. Anyway, he grabbed atleast 4, as well as a couple of those chunky mulberry layers.
It still really irks me to this day....that "auction".
Just for those who weren't there I'll explain the best I know (and Pup can correct me where/if I'm wrong).
One guy went out on his own with the vision of starting a bonsai nursery which consisted mainly of Natives. Hundreds (maybe thousands) of pieces of stock was being field grown (Melaleucas, Casurinas, Acacias, Eucalypts etc) you name it...he had it sort of deal. Dozens of Grapes (just like mine) and lots and lots of your usual evergreen varieties of popular bonsai subjects.
It turned out the land he was leasing was subject to be developed and....unable to keep it going or organise a relocation....it all got sold by some incompetant auctioneering mob over the span of a weekend. Crappy weather was the order of the day and this seemed to hurry the whole auction process along to the point where rednecks (people who had no interest in Bonsai at all) were there loading up utes and vans and driving off with thousands of dollars worth of material ready to sell at the next weekend market....all for a song!
So, this guy who had invested so much time, money and effort into something that was obviously for the beneft of the West Oz Bonsai community and not so much for financial gain got taken to the cleaners by the very people he was trying to oppose (the market/boot sale fraternity).
A very sad story indeed, and I can only hope that all that stock and other material is well and thriving somewhere
...yeah right!!!Pup! How's the 25m2+ olive grove that was there for the picking??? Hundreds upon hundreds of small leafed olives stuffed into one big forest
...no one even bid on that!!That's my rant over with,
Anthony
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Pup
