Canberra prop artist Tom Berger in his studio – where the magic happens. Photo: Tom Berger.
Every September since 2012, Canberra’s bushiest-faced men have gathered at the King O’Malley’s Irish Pub in Civic to have their beards officially judged.
There are prizes for the bushiest, the sharpest, the fullest, and $500 cash for the outright best.
But the Canberra Beard Competition (inspired by the pub’s early 20th-century namesake who famously sported a thick beard his entire adult life) was missing something.
For this year’s event, manager Peter Barclay decided the award needed a trophy – something that could live on the pub’s mantelpiece, engraved with all the winners’ names.
That’s where local aspiring prop artist Tom Berger comes in.
The new beard competition trophy at King O’Malley’s Irish Pub. Photo: Tom Berger.
Berger now serves at the bar down the road at Highball, but came to know Barclay – and the beard competition – very well while working at O’Malley’s for several years straight out of school, including as manager.
“I’ve got a bit of a beard – nothing award-winning though – so I didn’t enter the competition,” he says.
“Too much intimidation there!”
Berger has already made waves across the country for one of his earliest, and most daring, works – a human-sized Venus flytrap prop he crafted in his parents’ garage in 2019 for the annual school play at Radford College.
For those who don’t know it, ‘Audrey II’ – as the plant is called – is the main antagonist in every version of The Little Shop of Horrors, and requires human blood to survive and grow.
“The school was planning to rent one when I stuck my hand up and said, ‘I think I can do that’,” he says.
“In hindsight, I’m so shocked my drama teacher backed me on it because it got to a week before the production, and I was like, ‘Oh no, it’s not going to be done’.”
Berger’s Venus flytrap prop for Radford College. Photo: Tom Berger.
All in all, it took over a month and a half to assemble the aluminium and foam structure, staying up until midnight most nights, and even skipping school on the final day to meet the opening-night deadline.
All these years later, Radford College drama head Nick Akhurst says it’s still in use, even travelling as far as Orange in NSW to appear in plays.
“This was a huge undertaking, with Tom and his team creating an original design and building the plant from scratch; easily more than 150 hours went into its creation,” he wrote in a bulletin.
“So far, we have had two schools ask to copy our design, and two schools have used the plant in their productions.”
The beard trophy is considerably smaller, but expected to last for just as many years.
It stands approximately 20 centimetres tall and features a gleaming 3D-printed gold-coloured beard atop a solid wooden base, complete with a brass panel ready to record the names of future winners.
“Hopefully, I’ll come back in a couple of years and see it with a bunch of the winners on it,” Berger says.
The flytrap in action during a play at Radford College. Photo: Radford College.
He’s hoping to build a career out of prop creation for TV and film, and is currently applying for a competitive course in Sydney.
“I’ve been making stuff for as long as I can remember, really. It’s just my favourite thing, my joy in life. Maybe it’s not the most realistic job in terms of a living wage and all that, but we’ll have to see where I end up.”
He certainly has the CV.
Mitch Mee, the winner of the 2025 Canberra Beard Competition. Photo: King O’Malley’s Irish Pub, Facebook.
Mitch Mee was the winner of this year’s Canberra Beard Competition – with this 60-cm-long mane – and his name is the first to be engraved on the new trophy. Mitch, who works in conveyancing and started growing his beard about eight years ago, has entered the two previous competitions but only struck luck this year.
The next competition will be held in September 2026.
