That’s the opinion of Torimba Festival of the Forest woodcraft winner Ron Girdler.

His fine piece of craftsmanship, a timber cream separator perfect in every detail, was 12 months in the making and deservedly took out Grand Champion at the annual timber show held in Ravenshoe.

The Rockhampton craftsman showed fascinated onlookers how the separator was assembled, with all the internal components working to machine-like precision.

The piece was made to scale from the real item and includes a mixture of native timbers including silver ash, belah oak, red cedar, camphor laurel, gidyea and mango.

And Ron’s comment would be echoed by the dozens of woodworkers who have spent countless hours producing pieces of exquisite quality for the prestigious show which runs in conjunction with the two-week-long Torimba Festival.

Steward Robert Bewick said the show attracted entries from all over Queensland and there were sections for timber sculptures, high and low relief carving, intarsia and inlay, large and small woodcraft items, pyrography and the very popular spindle, plate and segmented woodturning.

“This show would leave anything else in Australia for dead,” said a proud Mr Bewick.

“Ravenshoe has a timber heritage and this is wonderful for the town.”

*Full story in this week’s North Queensland Register, out Thursday.