BOB MARCHANT

BOB MARCHANT WAS BORN IN VICTORIA’S FLAT Wimmera country. As a child, he was always drawing, at home and in primary school in Dimboola. His talent was recognised by the art teacher, watercolourist Ella Service, when he arrived at Nhill High School, and she developed that talent by taking him into the Wimmera landscape to draw and paint in watercolours.

When his parents, struggling to make ends meet, told him he’d need to leave school to help support the family, Service offered to pay for her favourite pupil to train as an artist. His parents were too proud to take up the offer, but then his mother won a little money in a lottery. Although