The WILLOWweavers Research Project and Research Network emerged out of a series of serendipitous encounters that sparked a hunt of a kind for a Launceston WILLOWweaver of yesteryear - Leandro Di Lullo. As it is with serendipity one thing led to another and what appears to be a set of 'faded memories', and some storytelling, it emerged that up until WW1, or thereabouts, Launceston had a longstanding and vibrant 'wicker industry'.
The 'Ballard enterprise' employed somewhere around 40 workers and it seems that albeit they were the key makers and willow growers there were others in that era. And the stories not only resonated with 'colonial settlement' but also convict histories. However much later others seem to have turned up with different rich personal cultural cargoes.
What seems to have been forgotten in Launceston is just how often willow weavers (wickers!)and basket weaving touched people and their lives in almost every perceivable way pre WW2 and into the 1960s/70s. Indeed, it is not a stretch of the imagination to suggest that at the time 'basketry' touched almost every Tasmanians'/Launcestonian's life in some way. Likewise, this was, and is, evidenced in cultural landscapes and arguably in tangible ways.
How might such an activity have faded from view and so quietly? How did it shape people's lives and the places they lived? What has taken its place? How and when?
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CONTACT INFORMATION
Please eMAIL: LAUNCESTONprojects@bigpond.com
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