The Southern Forests.

The place

The Southern Forests is the cluster of five shires at the tall-timber end of Western Australia’s South West — Manjimup, Bridgetown-Greenbushes, Boyup Brook, Nannup and Donnybrook-Balingup. Twenty-five thousand people. Four hundred kilometres of forest. A wine region, a truffle industry, an apple industry, a cherry industry, an arts triennial and more festivals than the state capital.

It punches well above its population on output. It has not, until now, had its own commercial design and print studio.

The five shires

Each shire has its own character, its own industries and its own calendar. We work across all of them.

• Manjimup. Truffles, cherries, stone fruit, karri timber. Australia’s truffle capital and the largest stone-fruit district in the state.
• Bridgetown-Greenbushes. Cattle, fruit, lithium, blues. The Blackwood River runs through it and Blues at Bridgetown runs every November.
• Boyup Brook. Wool, beef, country music. Hosts the Boyup Brook Country Music Muster every February.
• Nannup. Forests, the Blackwood, music. The Nannup Music Festival turns a small town into a four-day folk-and-roots gathering each March.
• Donnybrook-Balingup. Apples, stone fruit, cellar doors. Donnybrook’s apple orchards have fed Western Australia for a century; Balingup hosts the medieval carnivale.

What the region makes

Some of the country’s best-known produce, drink and craft comes out of these five shires. The clients we’re built for are the people who make it.

• Wine. Pemberton, Manjimup and Geographe subregions — cool-climate chardonnay, pinot, shiraz and a growing portfolio of alt-varietals.
• Truffles. Australia’s largest production, almost all of it within an hour of Manjimup.
• Stone and pome fruit. Cherries, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines — Manjimup and Donnybrook between them grow most of WA’s harvest.
• Beef, dairy and marron. Pasture-raised beef and dairy off the high-rainfall pastures; marron from the rivers and farmed dams.
• Karri and jarrah timber. Hardwoods unique to this corner of the country — and the makers and joiners that work with them.
• Arts and craft. Working studios, ceramics, woodworkers and textile makers in every town.

A festival every month

The five shires put on more events per head of population than just about anywhere in WA. A snapshot of the calendar:

• Boyup Brook Country Music Muster — Boyup Brook, February. Three days of country music in the town that lives for it.
• Nannup Music Festival — Nannup, March. Folk and roots over the Labour Day long weekend.
• Blackwood River Arts Trail — across the valley towns, April. Open studios and galleries from Bridgetown to Boyup Brook.
• Forest Rally — Nannup, May. Rally cars on the gravel back roads.
• Truffle Kerfuffle — Manjimup, June. Australia’s premier truffle festival.
• Manjimup 15,000 Motocross — Manjimup, June. Forty years of motocross, and counting.
• Balingup Medieval Carnivale — Balingup, August. Jousting, costumes and a day in the Middle Ages.
• Pemby Trail Fest — Pemberton, October. A weekend of trail running and mountain biking.
• Blues at Bridgetown — Bridgetown, November. WA’s longest-running blues weekend, on the Blackwood.
• Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival — Manjimup, December. Cherries, cellar doors and orchards in full swing.

Plus a long list of agricultural shows, harvest events, gallery openings and community fundraisers — the kind of work that needs programmes, signage, banners and tickets at short notice.

The position

We are a local design and print studio. The designer is in the same town as you. The proof lands in your hand, not your inbox.

Fewer handoffs. Work proofed in person. A supplier you can call by their first name.