Castlemaine’s Billmans Foundry was gearing up for the unveiling of its largest project to date – two beautiful bronze whales created by Wollongong artist Julie Squires and fellow artist Theresa Ardler in Sydney’s Botany Bay – when the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
Regarded as Australia’s leading manufacturer of bronze fountains, street park, garden furniture and ornamental castings, the local company has undertaken several high-profile projects with former Melbourne artist Squires over the last decade, including casting the VK Commodore that forms part of the Peter Brock ‘King of the Mountain’ memorial sculpture at Bathurst’s Mount Panorama.
Billmans Foundry’s Max Billman said the latest massive project, which included canoes (Nawi) and a fishing net, aimed to mark the ‘Meeting of Two Cultures’ and was commissioned to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the first contact between the crew of HMB Endeavour and the Gweagal people on the shores of Botany Bay.
“To give you some idea of scale, the large whale is about 8m long and the largest canoe was about 5m long,” he said.
“The whale patterns provided were made from polystyrene coated in fibreglass and the canoes arrived as freshly carved bark canoes.
“The pieces were moulded and cast at Billmans Foundry, then welded together by Webb Welding.
“The canoes and the net were probably the most difficult pieces our moulders have ever done, we have some talented employees!”
The whole team had planned to take a bus up to the unveiling by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on April 29, but was unable to take the planned trek to Sydney after the COVID-19 crisis struck.
Despite the upheaval, the foundry’s regular work has not only remained steady, its orders have increased in the weeks since the pandemic began.
“With a real push for people to buy Australian made we’ve been inundated with orders for our personalised camp ovens and one of our Melbourne clients Aussie Heatwave has had a rush on their chimineas,” Mr Billman said.
“We have also had orders for our fountains, seats, verandah posts and lacework – with many doing garden work and home improvements during isolation and we have had a run on bell housing for our clients at the Castlemaine Rod Shop who have also been under the pump as car enthusiasts find themselves home with time on their hands to do their projects.
“We have been so busy we have even been able to bring in a couple of local young blokes who lost their jobs to help us out when required and in turn help them out.”
Mr Billman said it was wonderful to see so many people supporting Australian-made and Australian-owned products.
“We are really grateful. We really appreciate the support we have received from right across the local community and the country,” he said.
“We always aim to spend our money here wherever possible and we hope other community members do the same. Our local businesses are doing it tough right now and they need our support.”
