A PANDEMIC project lasting 20 months was completed recently when the 18,000th piece fell into place.
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Strathdale Post Office owner Greg Dunn completed an 18,000 piece puzzle he started almost two years ago.
The Ravensburger Puzzle titled 'At the Waterhole' has been laminated and is on display in Strath Village.
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Mr Dunn has been a puzzler for more than 50 years, starting as a child alongside his father.
"It's just something I love doing," he said. "I get quite into it and stay up until about two in the morning sometimes before going to bed.
"(This) took me longer because during winter there wasn't a lot of sun. You need a lot of natural light and I've got a big game room but in winter there isn't a lot of sun.
"I did it during COVID for something to do. I had the radio and usually a beer in my hand and just kept plugging away."
The project has been a point of conversation for Mr Dunn and his customers for the past two years.
"We've been here at the post office for nine years and I've told everyone for the last couple of years that I've been doing this jigsaw, so everyone now can appreciate that," he said.
"I actually put it on a Ravensburger website and I contacted the guy who designed it and sent him a picture when I finished it. He thought it looked awesome."
The veteran puzzler's previous best effort was a 3000-piece project and he has a well-oiled system for major puzzles.
"You sort it by colours and the edge. I had bowls (of pieces) everywhere I'd sorted (into) the different colours," Mr Dunn said. "The dark areas were really, really hard.
"Then you'd sort of set it up on a board and start doing it then take it to the main board. And you just keep adding to it that way."
To transport the delicate project, Mr Dunn rolled it in fleece and had a friend help him.
"A friend is a signwriter and he unrolled it, and then laminated the back of it. Then they put that clear laminate on the front," he said.
"I'm just so excited that it's on public display. I wanted to put it at home behind the bar. But because it's 1.9 metres high by 2.9 metres long, the wife wouldn't let me put it up at home. She said 'why don't you put it in Strath Village?' So we asked centre management."
Mr Dunn's next project is a more modest 3000-piece puzzle but with some tricky colouring.
"It's a hard one. It's only about four colours in the whole picture," he said. "Usually the more colour there is, the easier (the puzzle)."
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