Changing Australia: Bill Webb the master leather plaiter

0:00Here's a familiar sound on cattle properties across the country. That is a stock whip. So what makes a good whip? Well Bell Webb can tell you, he was just five years old when he was first introduced to leather plating. Later, he met RM Williams and developed a lifelong love of his work, becoming one of Australia's finest leather platters. Now he's helping to preserve these rare skills and pass them on to future generations. I'm delighted to say that Bell Webb is my guest this morning on Changing Australia. Can I bill welcome to you? Welcome. Thank you. You grew up on a cattle property out from Chinchilla in Queensland. How did you become interested in working with leather? It's a long story. I was trying to teach me via primary correspondence and she's looking after my brother and sister

1:03and I used to nick off all the time. So she got me a book or two to regard leather to see if I'd be making interest and keep me at home because dad was of the opinion if he wanted something, he either had to make something to sell something so he could buy something. I took to plating basic leather reins and bridles very early and I've never looked back. Why do you think it appealed to you even at that early stage bill? I think I just enjoyed making something that was better than the one I had and also I liked to have a few dollars in my pocket or a few few shillings in those days and if you could sell it to your neighbour or your neighbour's friends that was good. How do you work often with kangaroo leather? It is well renowned for its strength. What are the properties of it that make it so good for the work that you do? I'm not sure what the property is exactly of it.

2:03All I know is it's the strongest leather than the world, the interest rate is £1 for pound. You can cut it down so fine. You can cut it sort of a mill in a bit wide and about 0.3 or 4 millimetres thick and still work it and still be strong. There's a difference. There's red ruse and grey ruse and most people don't realise that grey ruse is a hair and a red ruse is a fur because it's a fur. The follicles are a lot tighter so you can fit more whole follicles in the strand which makes it stronger. Tell me about the first time that you met up with one regional Murray Williams, R&W. That's a story in itself because I was staying with friends of my mother and dad up at place called Cracko Station and I was up there for the Christmas holidays mastering and my pay was going to be 2 weeks to spend 2 weeks with our Emmett Rocky bar which surely happened and I spent 2 weeks Rocky bar and he was teaching me, showing me different bits

3:08and pieces and he'd give you a task in the morning and away he'd go and he'd come back in the afternoon and he'd look at it and he'd say well not bad but I think you can do better start again and that's live with me forever. If you think it's good have a good look and make sure it is good. How old were you when you met R&W? I forget 11 or 12. Right so very, very early for you. Yeah very early in the piece. What stuck with you of your impressions of him as a man Bill? Oh he was kind and generous and his knowledge was great. I think the biggest thing he did for me he introduced me to a lot of, he had connections if you know what I mean. And he could introduce me and say well go and see Tom or John or whoever and ask him to show you this and he'd always check up did you see Tom and what did he tell you because he had such a wide network of people and being introduced to all these different people

4:12that had different skills because there's not one person can teach you everything. You've got to go to a, you know I suppose a line of people that taught me a lot over the years. How much satisfaction do you get from working with your hands and producing the kind of work that you do? Oh I love it. I mean quite simply you make something and you deliver it or you deliver it in person the person looks at it and rolls it over and says that's beautiful. Well that makes me happy. What sort of items do you make now Bill? Mainly, mainly planted belts and stockweeps but some, you know, fashion accessories like necklaces and bracelets and I suppose I make a lot of key rings too using up your end pieces of leather. And how much concentration is needed especially when you're doing the plating bill? Well put it this way you can't sit there and watch TV and plant at the same time.

5:16Did you mind go somewhere else or you need to be 100% on what you're doing? I think if you're doing some really fine work you've got to concentrate because it's not hard to drop a strand and you know, miss a stitch so to speak. So you have to concentrate on what you're doing because you have to keep everything straight and neat, make sure there's no gaps. So yeah you do have to concentrate. It's not, I mean I do some shows at times and I'll have 12 or 13 strands and I'll plant away while I'm talking to you and people think it's great but yeah, that's just being a show off I think. That's going to say, Bill with this kind of work, if you're visiting properties in various parts of the country and you see some of the often it's in the shed some of the old satirey or even the gear from working horses from many decades ago, what does all that look like to your eye when you're seeing this work that's been done sometimes more than a hundred years ago? It's amazing.

6:16I mean people today think we're pretty smart and we've got pretty, pretty good new tools with some of the old work that I've seen and I've been lucky enough to have a good look at. It was done over a hundred years ago and the work is absolutely fantastic. A lady from Bloomsbury gave me a, the remains of a riding crop should broken in half and it is just so beautifully made, so fine. And she said can you replicate it? I said oh I'll ever go. Can you see the signature of some of these early craftsmen and women bill when you look at the things that they've made? Sometimes you can. I mean people have their own distinct styles and ways of doing it or they put a particular or not in a particular place or they've put a particular pattern. But yeah some of it's unknown. I mean lady bought a belt in the show me it common code two years ago at the Cobb 100 of all and it had six ridges in it. Well it was just an amazing belt that just think that was made in 1902, 2003.

7:22The follow started that, I think he started the story as he started in 1902 or three finished in 1907 and gave it to his girlfriend as an engagement present. That was an amazing, it took his time. How personal are some of these items? Particularly a lot of countryblocks they'll, if they get a belt they like they will wear that thing for decades. You can see how the notches have gone in and out depending on how they've been travelling and it really fits their body. There's that lovely curve in it. Those sort of things tell another story in a way as well Bill. Oh do you see that they're well used? I get requests on people saying oh you made me build some 30 years ago. It's just about worn out can you make me another one? I'll send this one down you can see what it was because I can't remember back 30 years what I made for you or anybody else. How many people are now taking up these skills Bill and how important do you think that is?

8:23Well I think it's really important because it's a traditional Australian art form when we have to keep it alive. We need people and there's getting to be a bigger demand for high quality handmade in Australia I believe and people are starting to realise that if you want the sort of material or items you have to pay for them and people can see that if you make a good quality article you can sell it and it is sustainable so you have to work hard at it. What do you think about the rise of cheap synthetic items that used to be handmade? Not for them at all I don't like them sorry. Can you understand their rise given how cheap and mass producer? I can understand their rise because people always conscious of their dollars but you've got that market and then you've got what I call the higher end market where people want

9:24the real McCoy so to speak. That's genuine leather and it's handmade and it's made in Australia. How do you see the feature of this craft Bill? I think it'll expand and keep going because once again people are looking for the high quality handmade and it's a traditional Australian production and people overseas they love the kangaroo plated belts or whips to hang on the wall or even use them occasionally at a party or whatever but it's a high quality article that needs to be sustained. That's one of the most unusual orders you've ever had or one of the most memorable orders you've had Bill. There have been a few but I've been asked at the moment to design or think about designing a fully plated king size bedhead for a new house in Sydney. How are you going to go about that?

10:27It'll take a while to draw it up and work it out but whether it comes off or not I don't know but it has been put to me and I thought well yeah that's interesting if I could pull that off it would be something pretty special. Bill thank you so much for sharing your experience and some of your stories this morning on changing Australia. Thank you very much. Thank you.