Emma Crisp 1

Interview Stuart ‘Ben’ Caldwell Have you always lived in Molong? Yes, born and bred in Molong. Born on this hill up here behind us, (at the Molong hospital), I actually have the delivery bed at home that I was born on. Have you ever considered living anywhere else? I’ve had a couple of stanzas away yes, but Molong’s like a bit of a magnet it just keeps bringing you back. Where else have you lived? I’ve spent a bit of time in Sydney and a bit of time in Western Australia. What did you do over there? Ah not much, did a bit of tractor driving in Western Australia but in the city we didn’t do nothing we just bummed around. Do you have any siblings? Yes I have 7 brothers and sisters. How long have you owned this business? I’ve been going here for 18 years with the shop part of it. The scrap part of it I’ve been going, on this location, for 30 years. I bought the place when I was 18. Have you always been a business owner, is this the only business you’ve had? Ah no we had had an engineering and machinery business before I had this, it was a family business and we had a couple of droughts then we just went in a different direction. How has this business evolved? Ah, hard work, hard work and perseverance. So it has changed from a scrap metal yard to an antique shop? Well it’s got a bit of both one goes with the other. If I didn’t do the scrap metal I wouldn’t have the shop because the shop doesn’t make enough to allow me to live in the manner I’m accustomed. How do you source the items that you sell in the shop? You have to hunt them down, plus I’ve been doing it that long and I’ve been very successful at it, people bring it to me. So do they give it to you? Ah, nothings free, everything’s got to be bought, you don’t get nothing for nothing anymore. Use to once upon a time but since its become trendy wholesale is the best you can expect. What is the strangest thing you have ever seen come into the shop? A stuffed Johnson River crocodile. How much did you sell it for? $250. That and a pair of cane toads, stuffed. And the bloke that bought the Johnson River crocodile bought the cane toads as well. Have you had anything extremely rare come into the shop? Yeah I’ve had a few pieces over the years. Early on we had a lot of doctors type apparatus, which is really hard to get, and a lot of dental gear. Medical supplies are really hard to get. Where do you think you will be in the next 5 years? Gee, well if everything goes well I hope I’m still here. What do you think you would be doing if you didn’t have this business? Probably on the dole. I’d be doing something I’d be working for somebody. I’m sort of a self motivated person I’d just keep chipping away at it. Do you think one of your children will take over your business? I doubt that. I think as soon as I go they will just sell the lot and it will probably turn into residential. Who started the construction of the sculptures? Both me and Mark (an onsite artist) were both doing that, its just something that evolved. What was the idea behind it? We just wanted to go in that direction, its something we just wanted to do. Then we got momentum and we realised what they were going to do for the business and bring people to the business. So were just going on with it we’re just progressing with doing something now. So it has boosted the business? Oh yeah, definitely. Have you built any completely yourself? Yeah, the motorbike is mine. The sunflowers there are something I’m working on, I’ve sold a couple of pieces. We have done a few pieces together. What are some of your other hobbies? I’ve been working 7 days a week all my life I don’t have that many hobbies. I find hobbies a bit futile actually. So would the sculptures count as a hobby of yours? They are definitely a relaxation and if we could get paid for some of these big ticket items we would do it full time. But moneys tight at the moment and when you tell people how much you want for a sculpture that you have spent 200 hours on then they choke. Anything under $500 dollars just jumps out the door you know, a bird bath or a chair or something like that people come in all the time buying that but when you get into the pieces worth thousands it just changes. Do you think if you got more exposure, if more people knew about it they would sell better? I think maybe if you were in a situation where you had 5 million people at your doorstep it would be a little bit different. I’ve noticed here in the past 30 years the exposure is here you just need to wait for the people to come past. So you don’t have any advertising elsewhere or anything like that? How do you target? You can spend a fortune on advertising and you will not target the market you are after. Unless, you know, I have a lot of customers that come in from the backcountry, I’ve got a lot of customers from the western suburbs in the city, how do I advertise that? You spend $600 dollars on advertising and it gives you one little piece for a week or two, it doesn’t work. In all my years of being in business I’ve done very little advertising because of that reason, it costs too much money. I’m my own advertising really. So you rely more on word of mouth? Yeah that and people driving past and seeing whats here.

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