ONE person's trash is often another's treasure and the young children of  Penola have certainly got to be grateful for Portland's crayfishers.

As well as for Merry Abbey, the Cashmore artist who has brought the two together with four eyecatching rope play huts.

The huts have been a painstaking labour to finish – the first one took 200 hours and while that has quickened up subsequently, they have still taken a fair bit of time – but one which Ms Abbey is pleased with the outcome.

So how did it come to be?

“My grandchildren go to the Mackay Childcare Centre in Penola and my daughter is on the committee there,” Ms Abbey said.

“These huts needed revamping and she said ‘Mum will do it’.

“I said ‘what’s the brief’ and they said ‘whatever you like’ so that’s what I did.”

The huts originally seemed to have grapevine prunings running through them but were disintegrating, not useful when kids are climbing over them.

“It was up to me what I did with them and I was lucky enough to get access to the rope through the crayfishermen,” Ms Abbey said.

“They have been very generous and gave me their old rope.”

The rope can tell a few stories as well – one lot used on the first hut came from a lot further away than usual.

“One of the fishermen looked at my hut and said ‘I know that rope’, it had been cut loose in Antarctica and got caught round one of the Portland trawler’s propellers.

“It got towed in and it took two divers a week to cut it loose. The rope got dumped behind one of the crayfishermen’s sheds and I got my hands on it.

“I like the idea of giving it another life. I was a sailor and I’ve been able to transfer a lot of that skill into this, things like whipping, splicing and the knots, that was very convenient.

“It’s been one big continuous problem-solving exercise.”

Ms Abbey has also had some help from net maker Ian Leck, who gave her a net maker’s needle to help twist the rope into place.

“It’s incredibly strong when you weave rope like this,” Ms Abbey said.

“The kids climb over them and it doesn’t affect them.”

The project also fits in with Ms Abbey’s principles, using “upcycled” materials without buying anything else – each hut contains hundreds of metres of rope.

“It’s amazing how much rope is in sheds,” she said.

“I kind of look at it and think there’s nothing wrong with the rope, but it’s good to recycle.”

Ms Abbey doesn’t think just the kids in Penola should benefit either.

“I think it would be nice to have one in Portland if someone made the frame,” she said.