RESIDENTS, community members and small business owners of the Ginninderra region are bringing to life the untold story of the Ginninderra Blacksmith’s Workshop in a new video work by artists Janice Kuczkowski and Joseph Falsone that will be shown in a free on-site screening tomorrow, Saturday April 28.

The workshop, now an easily overlooked wood and corrugated iron hut by the side of the Barton Highway, was an important centre for the local community from 1860 to 1949. The last village blacksmith, Harry Curran, operated the forge for more than 60 years.

Curran became a local icon. His workshop was used as one of Canberra’s first polling booths.

“Australia’s oldest blacksmith”, Curran was one of six Canberra pioneers chosen to meet the Queen during her 1954 visit to Canberra.

Blacksmith enlists the present-day residents of the area to tell tall tales of Curran’s life and times.

Central to the story is his infatuation with “the girl up the creek,” Agnes, who was later to become his wife.

Beulah McAppion, the couple’s granddaughter, also appears in the work, which is inspired by Beulah’s memories of her grandparents and the workshop in its heyday.

The free outdoor screening is presented as part of the Canberra and Region Heritage Festival 2012 and the “What Still Remains” project.

Free screening of “Blacksmith”, at the Old Ginninderra Blacksmith’s Workshop, Barton Highway, 200m east of Gold Creek Road turn-off, Nicholls, 5pm, Saturday, April 28. Bring a torch, warm clothes and enclosed shoes. Bookings to 6207 0893 or janicekuczkowski@gmail.com