WHEN you approach ‘Patchy’ Mitchell’s shed in Bairnsdale, there is no overwhelming sense of what it contains.
It is a non-descript iron-roofed extension to his house, with a shared brick wall and windows overlooking his vegetable garden.
The outside wall is solid metal with brick uprights and the front is open.
As you get closer, there are hints of what is inside – the
concrete pathway is strewn with cow hides.
For Rae ‘Patchy’ Mitchell is a whipmaker, and his shed is full of leather and whips – and the few tools he uses.
When talking to Mr Mitchell, his conversation is scattered with references to “snake heads”, “turk heads”, “pineapple plaits” and “bull pizzels” – all part of his
trade. And everything he does, everywhere he goes, it is with one or more whips in his hands.
Mr Mitchell began working at age 13 and has been a horseman all his life – including competing in broncoriding,
buckjumping and rodeos and working as a horsebreaker.
When he was 15-years-old, he met two men who inspired him to learn to plait: Peter Blondfield and Tom Willoughby.
Mr Willoughby was an Australian champion buckjumper and rodeo contestant, as well as a horsebreaker.
Mr Blondfield OAM, who passed away last year, was also a horseman and managed first Tombong Estate near Delegate and then Palgrove Station at Dalveen, Queensland.
“They both taught me to plait,” Mr Mitchell said, remembering work they shared, including contracts to make 100 whips.
“I was a mad-keen plaiter.”
Mr Mitchell learned to make whips, bridles, headstalls, hobbles and pocket knife pouches.
These days, the retired owner of Ensay Station makes and repairs whips and can still turn out three whips a day.
He is regularly seen at Bairnsdale saleyards delivering a new or repaired whip or picking up one to be repaired from stockmen attending the cattle sales.
On the shed’s verandah are more hides, while leather lengths hang from the roof and the plaiting horse waits to be used.
Mr Mitchell has modified this traditional piece of equipment, attaching a vice to the plaiting horse where he sits to plait.
He talks about the fall of the whip determining its length and how to work it.
He prefers the pineapple plait and always uses a snake head to join the whip to the leather strip that connects to the cracker.
He uses Tahitian cane to make the handles and covers each end with a turk head plait.
He has plaited with leather from kangaroo and cow hides.
“I usually plait using greenhide off cows,” he said.
“I get a lot of hides that are 20 years old and cured already – they’re the best hides."
Mr Mitchell uses a Stanley knife to cut the leather into strips and another knife to scythe the hair off the hide.
“I cut it with my eye and a knife – it should be tapered as you cut it and then scythed,” he said.
“It takes a lot of concentration and a fair bit of work.
“That’s the strength of your whip there,” he says, showing a greenhide whip with the plaited leather obviously tapered.
“With a good hide, I can make two or three whips a day – or I can make five handles a day.
“The turk heads take a couple of hours.
“A good whip can earn you $1000.”
He makes bullwhips also, made by hanging weights on the bull pizzel to lengthen it before cutting the leather into strips and plaiting it.
“Sometimes you’ll find a bullwhip with a bit of whalebone in it to add weight,” Mr Mitchell said.
After the whips are made, each spends time hanging from the roof with a concrete weight attached to work length and strength into it.