End of an era for Victoria Leather Guild

The Leather Guild in Victoria has been an association of people interested in and associated with the leather industry in Australia for about 40 years. It came to an end on October 6. The name implies a craft guild of leather users, especially to Brits, but it was nothing like that. Apart from holding regular technical meetings, social gatherings and seminars, the Guild has been a cohesive force in the Victorian and Australian leather industries. It had members from industry, chemical and machinery suppliers and the CSIRO Leather Research Group so benefited from members such as Drs Jim Scroggie and Margaret Davies (iconic researchers into chrome tanning amongst other things) and Catherine Money. Industry members included the elite of Australian leather including names such as Krohn, Vary, Longbottom, Pitt, Kennon, Birdsall, Menzies, Heysen and many others. Some tanneries like Howe Leather had 10-12 members. Suppliers were always great supporters and provided many interesting speakers. Many of the names are now gone from the leather industry as moves and mergers take place but, at the time, Yorkshire Chemicals, Sandoz, Ciba Geigy, Stahl, BASF, Bayer and Rohm & Haas among others all had numerous members. The Leather Guild and the CSIRO were instrumental in organising the successful 1986 IULTCS conference. With changing times, de-centralisation and restructuring of the industry, interested parties in Australia have become less and less and for some years now the Guild has been inactive. With the closure of the CSIRO Leather Research Centre and the retirement of Catherine Money, (also the Leather Guild chairwoman) it was decided by the committee to wind it up and a final meeting and dinner was held at the City Centre Italian restaurant. It was an excellent evening with many of the past and present members there. Some nostalgic references were made to the 'good old days' and there were many reminiscences. So an era came to an end in a very convivial atmosphere. Richard Speight Consulting 21