{"id":856819,"date":"2026-08-16T02:40:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T02:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/856819\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T02:40:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T02:40:41","slug":"bill-webb-learned-leatherwork-from-rm-williams-and-now-hopes-to-save-craft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/856819\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Webb learned leatherwork from RM Williams and now hopes to save craft"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a warm winter’s day, sunlight spills through the tall timber doorframes of the memorial hall where Bill Webb is gently folding one strand of kangaroo leather over another.<\/p>\n

Dust dances in the beams of light as five women carefully follow his practised movements, cutting, braiding and conditioning at workstations dotted around the hall.<\/p>\n

Conversation ebbs and flows as they laugh about husbands, children and the joys found living in rural north Queensland.<\/p>\n

The room smells faintly of kangaroo hide and fresh country air.<\/p>\n

There is no rush.<\/p>\n

For the next three days, they have traded family and farm for sharp knives, leather gauges and sheets of finely cut kangaroo skin.<\/p>\n

The master leather plaiter is teaching them to make one of Australia’s most iconic bush tools \u2014 the stock whip.<\/p>\n

\"A Bill Webb hopes to keep the art of leather plaiting alive through workshops.(ABC Tropical North : Aimee Mitchell)<\/p>\n

Softly spoken and quick to laugh, Bill roams from one student to the next, quietly correcting a hand position here, tightening a braid there.<\/p>\n

“Lean on it with your body,” he reminds them.<\/p>\n

It is advice repeated dozens of times throughout the workshop.<\/p>\n

Not because leather is difficult, but because patience is.<\/p>\n

While few Australians may know the name Bill Webb, plenty know the man who taught him about craftsmanship and legacy.<\/p>\n

Keeping RM’s dream alive<\/p>\n

Those immersed in the world of leather plaiting regard Bill as one of the country’s finest craftsmen, whose work has travelled to Brazil, England, Italy and the United States.<\/p>\n

He has won multiple Dame Mary Durack Awards for Outback Crafts, which Bill describes as “the Melbourne Cup” of leatherwork.<\/p>\n

\"A Bill favours kangaroo skin for making whips because of its strength and durability.(ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)\"A Working with leather requires patience and time.\u00a0(ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)\"A Tools of the trade used by Bill and his workshop attendees to craft leather into different designs.(ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)<\/p>\n

But ask him what he is proudest of, he does not mention the awards.<\/p>\n

He talks about teaching.<\/p>\n

“My mission in life is to try and keep the art form of leather plaiting alive,” he says.<\/p>\n

“That was RM’s dream and I’m trying to do the same.”‘Boy’<\/p>\n

Long before Bill became the teacher, he was simply “Boy” to legendary bushman Reginald Murray Williams, now famously known as RM Williams.<\/p>\n

The pair first met when Bill was a teenager spending school holidays mustering on neighbouring properties.<\/p>\n

His payment was not money \u2014 it was two weeks learning beside the man whose name would become synonymous with craftsmanship and Australian bush culture.<\/p>\n

\"Black RM Williams affectionately nicknamed a young Bill Webb “Boy.”\u00a0(Supplied: Bill Webb)\"Old RM Williams (left holding hat) took Bill Webb under his wing when he was a young man at Rockybar station.\u00a0(Supplied: Bill Webb)\"old Bill Webb grew up on cattle properties where bushcraft was part of everyday life.\u00a0(Supplied: Bill Webb)<\/p>\n

“He was such a generous man,” Bill says.<\/p>\n

“If you were fair dinkum, he’d give you the shirt off his back.”<\/p>\n

RM also demanded perfection.<\/p>\n

A piece that looked finished to everyone else often wasn’t finished to him.<\/p>\n

“He’d say, ‘You can do better than that. Start again,'” Bill recalls.<\/p>\n

\"A Bill’s leather plaiting skills were passed on to him by the famous RM Williams when he was just a boy.(ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)\"A Catherine McNamara learns the skills to continue the trade long after the workshop has finished.(ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)\"An Bill trims the conditioned kangaroo leather so it is ready for plaiting.(ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)\"A Rhonda Walton patiently braids the thin strands of kangaroo leather for the body of her stock whip.(ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)<\/p>\n

More than half a century later, Bill still hears RM’s words every time he starts a new piece.<\/p>\n

“He was always just saying, ‘Try and make the next one better than the last one and be the best that you can be,'” he said.<\/p>\n

At the Bloomsbury Soldiers Memorial Hall, about 90 kilometres north of Mackay, the ladies are starting to understand why.<\/p>\n

Making a whip involves focus and steady movements to perfect not just what is seen on the outside, but also to establish the foundations and finally the finishings on the inside too.<\/p>\n

Bill tells them 70 per cent of the job happens before the first strand is ever plaited.<\/p>\n

\"A Raelene Miller conditions her hand-cut leather strands before she begins the plaiting process.(ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)<\/p>\n

“Each strip must be cut to exactly the right width,” he says.<\/p>\n

“Every strand stretched. Trimmed. Bevelled. Prepared. Only then can the leather start to take shape.”<\/p>\n

“Look after it, and a good whip can last a lifetime \u2026 or two.”<\/p>\n

Saving the trade<\/p>\n

For Jane Henley, the journey to Bloomsbury started more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n

The hairdresser from Tully first met Bill at a Lost Trades Fair in Victoria, which is dedicated to showcasing artisans who practise lost arts, rare trades and forgotten crafts.<\/p>\n

\"A Tully farmer Jane Henley has been waiting years for Bill Webb to host a leather plaiting workshop in north Queensland.(ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)<\/p>\n

When she found out Bill was heading north for a workshop, she packed the car and convinced three girlfriends, Catherine, Rhonda and Raelene, to come too.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been stalking Bill Webb for years,” she laughs.<\/p>\n

Her handmade whip is destined for her husband, who still uses one while mustering cattle on their small property near Tully.<\/p>\n

Jane had never worked with leather before, but now she’ll have the knowledge to make another.<\/p>\n

That, Bill says, is exactly the point.<\/p>\n

He says for generations, leather workers closely guarded their techniques, but now he believes the great risk is that nobody learns at all.<\/p>\n

“They wouldn’t show you because you’re going to take business away from them,” he says.<\/p>\n

\"Two The work starts with the right piece of leather.\u00a0(ABC Rural: Aimee Mitchell)”Now \u2026 we’re trying to tell everyone as much as we can so we can keep it alive.”<\/p>\n

Workshop organiser Kimberly Carey grew up surrounded by horses, dogs and stockwhips on a cattle property near Clermont in central Queensland.<\/p>\n

She worries practical bush skills are slowly disappearing beneath screens and keyboards.<\/p>\n

\"A Kimberly Carey tests her newly made stockwhip in her backyard.(ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)<\/p>\n

“If we don’t keep any of these old skills alive, they’re going to be gone,” she said<\/p>\n

“It builds character, it builds patience, and unreal craft.”Spreading the craft<\/p>\n

By the final afternoon, everyone has a finished whip.<\/p>\n

Some are a little tighter than others, some braids are more even, but none of that matters much to Bill.<\/p>\n

He knows they have learned enough to make another or to teach someone else.<\/p>\n

\"Four Kimberly Carey’s whip collection now includes her own handmade addition.(ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)\"A Some of the many uniquely handmade leather products crafted by Bill Webb.(ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)\"Fine The fine strands of Kangaroo leather tightly plaited show the intricate work needed to make the butt of a stockwhip handle.(ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)\"A Bill travels to crafts markets to sell his work and meet others people who appreciate bush craftsmanship.(ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)<\/p>\n

Kimberly turns her whip over in her hands.<\/p>\n

“It’s pretty awesome,” she says.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t realise how much was involved in building one.<\/p>\n

It will take pride of place in her home, the first of many she intends to make.<\/p>\n

\"A Raelene Miler, Jane Henley, Rhonda Walton, Catherine McNamara and Kimberly Carey with their handmade stockwhips and teacher Bill Webb (centre).(Supplied)<\/p>\n

For Bill, her confidence to try more is the greatest compliment a teacher can receive.<\/p>\n

When asked what Bill would like his legacy to be, he pauses for a moment.<\/p>\n

“I’d like my legacy to be that people know I’ve tried to pass the trade and the skills on to everybody else that wants to learn,” he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a warm winter’s day, sunlight spills through the tall timber doorframes of the memorial hall where Bill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6634,212528,64,63,427035,99,180291,31367,25980,54647,145268],"class_list":["post-856819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-agriculture","tag-artisan","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bill-webb","tag-business","tag-craft","tag-farm","tag-farmer","tag-queensland-country-hour","tag-rm-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}