By Taylah Eastwell
If there’s anything more colourful than Boinga Bob’s quirky Warburton treehouse, it’s the life experienced by the man who lives inside.
From running up Mt Everest, living on Mt Kilimanjaro, sleeping out with animals in south-east Africa, travelling Britain in a VW Kombi and doing art projects with bears in Alaska, Robert Prudhoe, affectionately known as Boinga Bob, has lived his life “seeking to make known the unknown”.
And Bob has done exactly that, building an out-of-this-world treehouse out of carved wood, colourful art and pure creativity.
The home, nestled in the hill behind the Warburton township, has long been a source of enjoyment for locals and tourists alike, so popular it now features on a Visit Warburton tourism website.
But after years of pointing and staring in awe, members of the community now roll up their sleeves to help out, in a mammoth effort to save Boinga’s beloved home. The community help came flooding in after Yarra Ranges Council threatened in 2016 to demolish the iconic treehouse if structural improvements were not made.
Council cited a number of general concerns, including deterioration, electrical faults and a need for weatherproofing.
A Facebook page, titled ‘Save Boinga Bob’s House’ was created to raise awareness of works needed, with a dedicated group of volunteers jumping at the chance to put in the hard yards and help save 81-year-old Boinga Bob’s home.
The page now has over 3,000 members, while a Go Fund Me page is constantly updated to help raise money for different repairs needed.
Generous community donations have seen the house completely re-wired electrically in three stages, restumped in some places with beams underneath and more recently, a new roof was installed after local company Crowley Roofing kindly donated materials while employee Ben McAlpine completed all labour.
And in true Boinga style, the roof is far from average, a “Quetzalcoatl” style with multi-coloured roofing sheets that tie in perfectly with the vibrant character of Bob’s home.
“I am very grateful for the community because these are all things I can’t do by myself. I’ve got a lot of respect for our community because they are very loving and cohesive and generous and they get together. I am genuinely trying to make something nice for the community here art wise,” Boinga Bob said.
“I am 81-years-old now and I haven’t given up yet, and I don’t intend to give in either. I want to make this place progressively better and better,” he said.
The new roof is yet another quirky addition to the home – tying in nicely with Boinga Bob’s one-of-a-kind energy pole on the Highfield Road side of his house.
“I sent them a letter, a pole enhancement proposal, and they let me go down to their construction yard in Lilydale,” he said.
As a result, one of the power poles connected to Boinga Bob’s home is covered in art and colour, in true Boinga fashion.
Amidst all the repairs, Boinga Bob and his volunteer friends have recently began doing the groundwork for the establishment of ‘The Boinga Foundation’, a foundation that will allow Bob to leave his treehouse to the Warburton community when he passes.
“I really want to fix this place up beaut, and leave it to the community long after I am gone. It attracts a lot of interest and I think it’s positive interest because it shows people we don’t have to all be the same,” he said.
Project manager and friend of Boinga Bob, Paul Mac said the community got on board to help with the repairs after council issued some working orders around three years ago.
“Our next big project will be disassembling and reassembling the two street structures in a more user friendly, interactive way, because we don’t want to see anyone get hurt, just as council doesn’t,” Mr Mac said.
“We will also be working on the deck to bring it into compliance,” he said.
Mr Mac said there had been “working parties” every second Saturday at the house over the warmer months, with the Save Boinga Bob’s House group inviting members of the public to help with anything from “maintenance, to gardening, to more specific things and even art aspects such as creating fence palings”.
“Bob plans long-term to leave his house as a legacy to the community so it’s great that the community are coming in and supporting him. The Boinga Foundation is currently forming as a not-for-profit organisation that will maintain the property in perpetuity and transform the house into some form of art gallery or similar,” Mr Mac said.
Anyone with skills and talents in carpentry, painting, mechanical skills, gardening and landscaping are invited to help with the community project of saving Boinga Bob’s treehouse.
For more information on the project, visit Save Boinga Bob’s House on Facebook.
