Well, actually, they drove 796 kilometres which is very nearly 500 miles.

Tambo Teddy enthusiasts, Glenda and Fiona Scurr, spent a long weekend in Tambo recently travelling all the back roads capturing holiday snaps of all their bears in front of the relevant mailbox or property sign. Teddy bear collectors are known as ‘Arctophiles’, the Greek word for teddy bear lover. Our friends the Scurrs, from Cedarvale on the Sunshine Coast, are avid Tambo Teddy Arctophiles – would that make them tamboarctophiles? Between them, the mother and daughter collecting duo boast a collection of well over 100 of our beautifully handcrafted bears. And of course, each bear has its own name and identity.

Tambo’s world-famous teddy bears have a rather unique naming convention, the bears all carry a local station name alliterated with Christian name. The creators at Tambo Teddies look carefully at every bear to select a name that suits the customer or the bear.

There are around seventy rural properties or stations in the district, running both sheep and cattle. Station names make great monikers for teddy bears including Atlam, Lisnalee, Yandarlo, Tarabah, Toolmaree and Cheero Downs, to list just a few. Most properties have a unique mailbox or signpost at their road entrance. Some signs are cleverly crafted from metal while others are an old 44-gallon drum or even an old fridge to keep the mail deliveries out of the rain and the weather.

Glenda and Fiona Scurr discovered as many of the properties as they could over their two-day mini-break and after travelling miles and miles they had captured a whole gallery of images of their bears in front of their namesake property sign.

BUT….there are still a few to discover and they’ll be back. Why not come and visit and take a drive around – it’s only 500 miles!