Listen to this story being read by Isabella Ross, here.
Julia deVille has always been fascinated with death.
At the age of three she was asking those around her whether they would want to be buried or cremated.
By 12, she decided to become a vegetarian. But it was when she turned 16 that Julia came across her first taxidermy, after wandering into an antique stop.
"I saw a stag's head at an antique shop and that's what kind of started the curiosity. It was like $150 which was a lot of money for me at the time. But I saved up and bought it and had it on my bedroom wall as a kid," Julia tells Mamamia.
And for 20 years Julia was a taxidermist - skinning, stuffing, wiring and mounting hundreds and hundreds of deceased animals, creating art in the process.
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When Julia first decided she wanted to pursue taxidermy, not many people took her seriously. It wasn't until she moved to Melbourne from New Zealand, aged 18, that she found a retired taxidermist who offered to show her the craft.