At home at Ballarat’s goldrush museum, it is people like Colin Rowe and Mick Dando who are ensuring the knowledge of past creators is never lost. 

Five participants immersed themselves in an experience of 1850s craftsmanship at Soveriegn Hill’s leather belt making workshop on Saturday October 27. 

The workshop, hosted as part of City of Ballarat’s new tourism campaign Made of Ballarat, provided an introduction to the traditional methods of leather belt making, a world far away from machine produced belts of today.  

After five hours, each participant left the hands-on session with a quality leather belt that has a personal touch. 

Sovereign Hill manager coach builders and wheelwrights Mick Dando said the workshop was in line with the museum’s focus of sharing knowledge and keeping history alive. 

“Our duty, being part of a museum, is to carry knowledge on as much as we can. In the belt making sense, it is to get people at an entry level looking at the basics of hand sewing and saddle stitch, the ability to use knives and the terminology of the tools,” he said. 

Participants dressed in the traditional costume of 1850s tradespeople. Ladies dressed as men in a waistcoat, jacket and hat. There were no or few women tradespeople in the 1850s. 

The group of five had soon cut through their leather and began working through each step by hand using traditional hand tools.

They’re told to ensure there is minimal waste, or if there is waste, to save it to make something else.

Each step is intricate and detailed, with a personal effort and connection that can’t come from a machine. 

Mr Dando said the detail in each step requires patience and concentration. 

“A lot of people want to rush these days, but doing it by hand makes you slow down,” he said. 

“Many people in the course get stressed because the material is expensive and you can make mistakes.”

Colin Rowe, who helped Mr Dando lead the course, is Sovereign Hill’s harness maker. 

He said he has seen a growing interest in trades and knowledge sharing in recent years. 

“The fear is that as we all get older and move on the knowledge will be lost and these older trades won’t survive. There is no more apprenticeships for a lot of them now like harness making,” he said. 

Mr Rowe began his journey to learn harness making as a young child. 

“I attempted to make a bridle when I was about eight. That was a dismal failure but that was where it started,” he said. 

“As I got older I got sick of seeing my father and grandfather tying harness together with wire and string and all sorts of stuff. They had the odd basic tool, so I decided to start to pull stuff apart. I soon learnt by pulling everything apart and starting it again I could work out how it had been put together. From there I kept at it.”

Mr Rowe has worked at Sovereign Hill for the last 18 years, and has spent the last seven replacing all the harness throughout the museum.

Now he is passing on his knowledge to a younger colleague. 

Staff at who work in trades at Sovereign Hill learn the craft of wheelwrighting, coach building, harness making, blacksmithing and painting. 

Mr Dando said there were few harness makers and wheelwrights remaining in Australia, but the people who were still working in these unique trades were passionate and devoted to their field.

There are few places like Sovereign Hill where the knowledge is passed on, but other platforms like the Lost Trades Fair are hoping to inspire the next generation to appreciate and demand handcrafted items. 

The fair, which will be held in Kyneton in March 2019, will showcase more than 100 makers at work. 

Watch the video about the Lost Trades Fair below 

Visit Ballarat tourism campaign Made of Ballarat has also responded to a growing interest in handcrafted goods, showcasing the region’s artisans through makers’ profiles and an event series.  

Mr Rowe said he is hopeful the knowledge of his and other unique historical trades will be carried through future generations. 

“The knowledge will be carried on if you can get young people interested. They may not go into actual harness making because the need for it outside of somewhere like this is fairly small, but the knowledge will be there.”

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