Right: John Jewell crafts a millet broom. John believes he is the only person in Australia who handcrafts the classic brooms.By Shaun Inguanzo
AT the Australia’s Living History display, a showgoer asks me “are you doing a report for the newspaper or something?”
It’s easy to see why he had asked, because the display by Queenslander John Jewell and wife Mary was so fascinating it’s hard not to ask the bearded bushwhacker a swag of questions regardless of whether you are a reporter or not.
Australia’s Living History was a new display for the Dandenong Show and one this reporter wishes many more people had the opportunity to see.
Sure, there weren’t horses this year, but I’ve seen those animals before.
However, I had never seen a millet broom being handwoven, and had never seen a pole lathe in action.
The Jewells travel Australia with their display, and this year the Dandenong Agricultural and Pastoral Society sponsored them to come to Dandenong.
The pair had fenced off a small area to create a typical Australian settlement scene, complete with the archaic tools once used to forge a civilisation.
Three working dogs lie around the site as John – almost a part of the scenery – weaves away at the neck of the broom.
“That’ll cost ya,” he says jokingly when I pull out my camera. His humour and character already has several people laughing.
I notice a tent complete with what appears to be a makeshift bed, and ask “Is that where you sleep?”
“Only when I’ve been bad,” is the line he throws back, pointing out that he and wife Mary have a lovely new caravan they live in while travelling the nation.
John then dips into an earnest conversation to tell me that millet brooms date back to the late 1700s and sweep much better than the Chinese-made plastic variety that I, at age 24, am more familiar with.
It could be useless information, but I’m drawn into asking more questions, and in particular why John advocates the tools and trades of old.
“If you don’t know where you’ve come from, how will you know where you are going?” was his response.
“It’s about keeping these facets of our history alive, especially the trades that would otherwise be lost and forgotten.”
Over on the pole lathe, a pool of showgoers shows interest in what Mary is crafting.
She presses a pedal-like stick underneath the lathe that rotates a wooden table leg about 720 degrees one way, while a string pulls down tensely on a flexible red gum branch metres above.
The tension pulls the string back up, rolling the leg 720 degrees in the reverse direction.
The repetitious motion creates a rotation that allows a craftsperson to create neat grooves and designs in furniture legs, and also to roll materials, Mary said.
It’s fascinating, and perhaps my favourite part of this year’s Dandenong Show.
I wave goodbye and feel satisfied knowing that I’ve not only enjoyed an exhibit, but learned something in the process.
