Annette Goldman, Shirley Simpson and Gloria Trindall all enjoy turning pieces of timber and plywood into children’s delights, with some of their creations on show at last weekend’s Gunnedah Show.

Mrs Simpson’s first effort with plywood and a Stanley knife was one of the biggest – and most eye-catching – entries in the woodwork section.

The enormous doll’s house, which Mrs Goldman said only just fitted into the back of a Ford Territory for its trip to Gunnedah, took Mrs Simpson about four months to complete and is likely to go to her granddaughter.

Mrs Goldman said it was the first time she and Shirley had entered the Gunnedah Show, but she was a regular entrant in her local show at Narrabri.

Mrs Goldman makes dolls’ houses as well, although she only entered her calico dolls at Gunnedah this year.

She’s a firm believer that everyone should try to  find something to enter in their local show to ensure the pavilion sections remained viable into the future.

In fact, it was this thought she expressed to sister Shirley last year that encouraged her to pick up the tools and start creating and now she’d been “bitten by the woodwork bug”.

The real inspiration behind the three sisters’ woodworking passion was their mother, Mrs Goldman said, who “was always building something” including motorbikes on rockers.