Dulwitches

The Hon. R.B. MARTIN (15:42): Tucked away in an elegant but unpretentious local shopping centre on Devereux Road, Linden Park, is a small, glass-fronted shop. When seeing it from the outside you are not likely to realise exactly what sort of shop you are looking at unless you already know. Once you enter, you will see an eclectic range of goods on show, including baby and children's wear, leather and wood products, textiles, fashion accessories, skincare, greeting cards and toys. Speak to the person staffing the till and it will quickly become clear that this shop is not like most others.

Dulwitches is a cooperative, a collective of like-minded members who use traditional artisan techniques to create a diverse and enticing selection of unique crafts: gifts, clothing, homewares, food and more. The items for sale in the shop are handmade by the members of the group who also staff the shop. Speak to one of these members and you may learn that the story of Dulwitches began 50 years ago this year, with five talented women. Their families and friends had long been the beneficiaries of their handmade gifts.

They envisaged the opportunity to translate their passions and their skills into a formal enterprise, and decided to open a small shop to sell their handcrafted wares. They found a suitable premise on Stuart Road in Dulwich, and Dulwitches opened in March 1974. The rules of the cooperative were clear: the group would make an effort not to double up on types of crafts, which is to say that if someone was contributing leather goods then their opportunity to be the sole contributor in that craft was maintained, and each member had to be a hobbyist rather than professionally trained.

The shop itself initially traded 2½ days a week. Membership soon grew from five people to 13 and, as the group's membership continued to expand, so did the shop's trading hours. Today they are open Monday to Saturday from nine to five, assisted through the support of an agreed maximum of 24 women and men members creating an impressively diverse range of goods.

Among these members is the person who introduced me to this charming enterprise. Mandy Bower was a long-term member of staff at the South Australian Labor Party, working part-time for several decades whilst she spent the other part of her week at Dulwitches. A member since 2002 and the current secretary of the cooperative, Mandy creates beautiful, handmade greeting cards and other papercraft items, knits gumnut dolls and does various other magical things with fabric as well.

Over many years, I have commissioned Mandy to make a baby blanket for each of my friends' children as they are born. I thank Mandy for putting Dulwitches on my radar long ago and, of course, for sharing her craft, as all of the members are kind enough to do so. The two longest serving current members are Shirley Wright, having joined in 1983, and Helen Chinnery, having joined in 1984. To be marking over 40 years of membership to Dulwitches is nearly as remarkable as the collective itself having endured for half a century.

While the shop's wares are constantly evolving, changing from week to week, there are some products that have been beloved and are highly recognisable among Dulwitches' loyal customers. Helen Laidlaw, a member since 1988, recalls people who had themselves received one of her iconic Dulwitches giraffes as a gift when they were young children coming back to purchase a giraffe for their own children. Dulwitches has customers whose parents and grandparents have shopped there, such is the embeddedness of Dulwitches within its community and the fondness that people have for it.

A shop can only survive for 50 years if there is something special about it, but I think it is fair to say that everything about Dulwitches is special, from the quality and uniqueness of its wares to the fact that the shop is not just a shop. It is the bricks-and-mortar embodiment of the whimsical spirit and the loyal dedication of a close-knit group of friends and colleagues.

I commend each and every member of Dulwitches, past and present, for creating the unique and individual pieces and sharing them with the world. I commend the Dulwitches cooperative on 50 impressive years of collaboration and friendship. May the next half century continue to bring each of you fulfilment and joy in your craft.