30/10/2026
OUTSTANDING article for S/W Skeletal and
Their also one of our Sponsors
🗞️ TOAST OF THE WEEK | THE TOAST
BUSSELTON BLOKE HAS A FEW BONES TO PICK. AND A BLOODY GOOD IDEA.
LOCAL LEGEND SPOTLIGHT | MATT DURELL
Well, butter my crumpets and call me a fish finger.
While most of us finish filleting a fish and chuck the bones in the bin, Busselton’s Matt Durell looked at a fish skeleton and thought:
“Hang on. That’s not rubbish. That’s a tiny underwater dinosaur.”
And thank goodness he did.
Because what happened next was pretty bloody clever.
Through his venture SW Skeletal, Matt transforms fish skeletons into intricate works of art.
We’re talking detailed creations so impressive they make you wonder how much patience one bloke can possibly have.
Most of us can’t build a flatpack bookshelf without losing a screw, blaming the instructions and needing a lie-down.
Meanwhile, Matt is carefully putting fish bones back together like the world’s most determined seafood puzzler.
But his creativity didn’t stop there.
Matt, a lifelong fisherman and former chef, is also the bloke behind The IkiPik — a Busselton-created fishing tool designed to help anglers dispatch their catch quickly and humanely.
That means less suffering for the fish, better care for the catch and a better feed for the people waiting at home with lemon, chips and absolutely no patience.
And it’s not just a clever little gadget sitting in someone’s shed next to a broken esky.
The IkiPik has grown into a range of practical fishing tools, with Matt chatting about his work on fishing podcasts and collaborating with Tuna Champions on a fish care kit.
From the waters of the South West to the wider fishing community, his ideas are making waves.
And THAT is exactly the sort of local cleverness we love celebrating.
Someone with a passion, a big imagination and the determination to actually do something with it.
No enormous corporate office.
No boardroom full of blokes saying “circle back” while eating tiny sandwiches.
Just a Busselton fisherman who looked at things a little differently.
MATT DURELL, THE OBSERVER RAISES A GLASS TO YOU. 🍻
For creativity, resourcefulness and proving that some of the best ideas come from people who genuinely love what they do.
And for showing that even a pile of fish bones can get a second career.
Turns out the fish weren’t just hooked — they were ready to bone up on entrepreneurship.
SUPPORT HIS WORK:
🐟 Instagram:
🎣 Instagram:
🌐 www.theikipik.com
Know another South West local doing something extraordinary?
Nominate them for next week’s Toast of the Week.
Love, The Dunsborough Observer 🗞️
Matt’s out here giving fish skeletons a second life. Meanwhile, the rest of us are still trying to work out what to do with that one lonely freezer fish from 2021.
