Badgery Belts

Bob Badgery learnt to plait kangaroo leather as a young lad on a Queensland sheep station in the 1930's. At the age of eight he sold his first plaited kangaroo leather belt for half a crown which marker the beginning of a lifelong interest in this Australia bush handicraft.

Later as an Articled Clerk in a country Solicitor's office, he augmented his apprentice wages by making plaited items which Tom Moore (an uncle) found buyers for in Sydney.

In the 1960's, the plaiting of kangaroo leather seemed to have become a dying art in Australia. With the growing number of overseas tourists coming to Australia, Bob Badgery decided to produce a plaited kangaroo leather belt as a true souvenir of his Country.

He encouraged a few plaiters to plait belts to his specifications with leather lacing supplied by him. His production went to Tom Moore to sell around the Sydney souvenir shops.

They called their informal business "Moore and Badgery". Tom Moore died in 1978 but by this time the business had become a viable cottage style industry capable of producing commercial quantities and the Badgery plaited kangaroo leather belt was well known in the retail souvenir trade.

Since then, Badgery belts have enlarged their range of hand plaited belts and won a place for them in clothing stores around Australia as good quality locally made items, reasonably priced and unmistakeably Australian.