Remembering Foxeys' Hangout

I discovered that there was a story involving stolen gold and an unsolved murder behind the traditional hanging of dead foxes on the tree.
This is a page from the Marralam book where I am thinking about this.

Foxeys Hangout

A stranger to me collaborated with this additional fox. Imagine if it became a movement of anonymous fox makers and hangers.


This started with a real fox. Run down on the road over the top of a nearby dam wall by my brother in law Jamie.

These foxes are made from American Oak barrel staves that I collected when working at Corio Distillery in Geelong (1985). There was the last cooperage in Victoria there. Staffed by old men who had a trade that was no longer valued. their last task was to cut in half the barrels so they could be sold as garden tubs. As they did so they would comment on the various repair jobs done by their predecessor, each with a unique brand , going back decades. I save the barrel staves for 20 years before converting them to foxes. We remembered the traditional hanging of foxes at a nearby intersection. A practice that had stopped years ago with new gun laws and the gentrification of the area. I was also struggling to articulate what a sacred site meant in practical terms; seeking the equivalent for the sake of argument at family BBQ's when I was collared by some well meaning family friend and asked what all this sacred site business was about. It worked.
I realised that this rotten old tree would be removed and a roundabout installed soon and that many local people would feel a sense of violation and loss as a result. Yet it's 'only an old tree' a traffic hazard. Making this parallel eased the struggle to get well meaning people to understand the connection to country issue.