A big crowd gathered in the main street near Mitre 10 on Friday afternoon to watch four contestants wielding chainsaws and sending the icy equivalent of sawdust flying into the air as they concentrated fiercely on an unlikely artistic endeavour – creating masterpieces from blocks of ice. Their chainsaws buzzing like angry hornets, they circled their stations and sliced, prodded and jabbed their ice blocks into some semblance of the competition challenge, a Christmas tree.
Damien Malcom (right), the winner of the competition, is pictured here being presented with a chainsaw by sponsors Bill and Melissa Kerr from Mitre 10.
Damien said he'd been going in the competition since it started, just because it was fun.
A handyman in town, he has never had a practice run to hone his skills before the competition and admits that sometimes his creations haven't turned out exactly as he has wanted.
"Last time the shape we had to create was a candle. I thought I'd try something a bit different from the traditional shape and do a tealight candle. It was a dismal failure!"
This year was the first time he had won the competition.
The blocks of ice were donated by Stanthorpe Aerated Waters.
Picture: CONTRIBUTED
Warmly dressed people came in droves to the Stanthorpe Showgrounds at the weekend. An estimated 10,000 people were in Queensland’s coolest region for what must be Queensland’s coolest event, Snowflakes in Stanthorpe.
