It’s fitting that stools inspired by chopping blocks are among craftsman Brett Sambrooks’ repertoire, as his workshop occupies what was once a butcher’s shop in the Murray River town of Koondrook in Victoria.

With a tireless dedication to recycling, Sambrook handcrafts his furniture collections from reclaimed timber such as red gum and secondhand materials including tin. In fact, his passion for reusing materials is so ardent that it’s common for him to reuse materials several times, bringing them to life each time in very different incarnations (turning a bookshelf made from factory off-cut floorboards into a table, for example).

Sambrooks’ collection comprises all manner of objects, from credenzas and tablet holders to beautiful wooden surfboards made from Australian cedar and Baltic pine. An avid surfer himself, Sambrook has always sought adventure, even having lived and worked in Antarctica as an on-site builder.