The argument in Molong’s top pub was pretty one-sided. Most participants seemed to agree that today’s apprentices just weren’t being taught the same craft skills as their forebears had.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
They just didn’t know how to sharpen a chisel or how to work out the pitch of a roof — let alone how to carve a beautiful violin from a couple of chunks of wood.
They were too tied up with the waste and excesses of a throwaway society. Of a world in which poor-quality chisels had become so cheap that you were better off buying another one if you’d accidentally hit a nail.
It was in this context, particularly, that this month’s inaugural Artisan Trades Trail in Bathurst was so important.
The trail provided people with an opportunity to slow down and to appreciate age-old skills; to think about what they were consuming and what they were wasting.
And Lucy White, Bathurst Council’s Destination Development Manager, who did much of the organising for the weekend, is quite right when she talks of an increasing desire for the pace to lessen, for people to regain some touch with the source of their sustenance.
“With the trend to slow down, there’s renewed interest in age-old crafts as people find meditation in these bygone trades,” she said.
“Bathurst has one of the largest numbers of traditional artisans in Australia, and this trail is a unique opportunity to see a variety of them at work in beautiful historic locations.”
The idea was to celebrate 20 crafts at 10 historic sites. Some crafts showed themselves to be more potently useful than others. Probably there were quite a few more than 20. Perhaps there might have been a few less — but I doubt it. Who cares? It was provocative and highly enjoyable.
There was certainly enough to do over a couple of days. The Woman with Altitude and I gave it a good nudge, but unfortunately we didn’t get to the Chifley Home, where one of Australia’s best-loved Prime Ministers lived, and where there was a display of 19th-century convict women’s trades and bonnets.
We did, though, particularly like the demonstrations by heritage artisans creating beautiful things out of wood, bricks, glass and stone at the old Tremains Mill, and the clydesdale horses, blacksmithing and stone-letter cutting, etc, at the Agriculture Research Station.
These areas also proved wonderful places to discover bodging. What a lovely word that is. Haven’t heard it? Go look it up, though a photo or two here will provide a clue.
And what about the displays and exhibitions of all things textile — spinning, weaving, embroidery, crocheting — plus beading, candlewicking, calligraphy and wirework at the Uniting Church Hall.
Now, there were some people with age-old skills being paid less than age-old labour rates for their effort. To be charged $3 for a bookmark personalised with a coloured beautifully printed name. Pffft.
Some of the techniques had been taken up by modern commercial practice. We did go to McDowells Herbal Treatments, in one of Bathurst’s quite industrial sectors, to watch a fermentation of various herbs being pressed — and destined for use in the treatment of some quite probably well bred equines.
Lucy White hopes that the Artisans Trades Trail weekend will become a feature of Bathurst’s calendar. I really hope that her expectations are realised.
These are people practising the arts and crafts upon which our civilisation — cities such as Bathurst — were built.
The skills need to be preserved, and some day we might, indeed, yet need them again. Perhaps just like a seed bank of last resort, we do need a skills, or artisans, bank. Just to be sure, to be sure.
John Rozentals is a freelance writer whose passions are travel, food and wine. He lives at Molong in the Central West of NSW, from where he hosts Oz Baby Boomers, a lifestyle-resource for mature Australians, and Molong Online.