Born in Sydney’s Annandale as Norman Kingsford Syphers in 1928, “Bill” began his bootmaking apprenticeship in Kings Cross at just 14 years of age and spent three years learning the trade. 

In those days, he said there was a bootmaker on every corner, but by the end of his stint there, he was yearning for the country life.

Bill began  working on farms doing jobs like wheat carting and building hay stacks to earn a quid.

“I’d had enough in the city. I just wanted to get away because I did three years straight with it and was looking for a change,” Bill said. 

He took a break from farm work and joined the Australian Army  after World War II when he sailed to Japan in 1946 for two years as part of the Occupation Forces.

“I saw a lot of starving people,” he said.

“I was in the military band as well as the infantry where we did patrols and stopped riots. We were based close to Hiroshima at Kaidaichi.”

Bill continued to do farmwork on his return to Australia which led him to pass through Gunnedah.

“I found Gunnedah to be the most hospitable place,” Bill said. 

“It was the people mainly.”

It was here where he began working for the Postmasters General as a linesman and started doing small   bootmaking and upholstery jobs for locals. 

Around this time, Bill took up the craft he learned as a teenager full-time and opened his first shop in Barber Street in the 1950s. 

He continued bootmaking and saddlery before moving to another premises in Chandos Street where he stayed for 25 years before relocating to his current shop in the main street. 

Still working with machines that are over 70 years old, Bill prides his reputation on quality which is never compromised. 

From any sort of saddlery from replacing soles on boots to  redoing stitching, repairing heels and making belts and saddles - Bill’s workmanship is something he has been proud of. 

For years he worked 18 hours a day and also played trumpet and bass guitar in a dance band to help pay the bills.

Over time, as the industry continued to change, Bill battled the shift towards Chinese and imported poorer-grade leather products.

“China has been the biggest killer,” Bill said. 

“For a long time I wouldn’t import any Chinese products but I was going broke quick.

“It’s a shame. Australia is selling itself out.

“The old leather was real good and  made in Australia but the imported stuff is all you can buy. It’s hard, and it breaks the machines down.”

Sadly, the traditional art of bootmaking is just about finished. 

Bill said back in the day, there were six bootmakers in Gunnedah. Nowadays there is just him and he is arguably the oldest saddler in Australia. 

“Nearly every country town has got a saddler but not a bootmaker,” he said.

Bill does whatever jobs come in, but things are pretty quiet. He used to get 20-25 boot jobs a day and now he may get one a month.

But with over 70 years in the business, Bill has not got retirement in his sights just yet.

“I like my job. I know it. If you know what you’re doing, you usually like it.

“I’ll slow down when I get a bit older,” he chuckled.

Bill Syphers Footwear and Saddlery stocks a large range of saddlery and leather care as well as jeans, belts, saddles and a full range of work boots.  

Related Story: A Gunnedah butcher’s life