If Australia’s fortunes rode on a sheep’s again, then the outback city of Tambo’s luck turned on a teddy.
The first Tambo Teddy was reduce from sheepskin, filled with wool and offered in early 1993 as a part of a undertaking to lift the profile of the tiny city in central Queensland and assist the struggling wool business.
The firm is celebrating 30 years since its first bear, named Macfarlane Mary, was offered to the native police sergeant.
Since then, 68,000 teddies have discovered houses round Australia and abroad, changing into fluffy buddies to royal infants and placing the city of 400 on the map.
Alison Shaw and Tammy Johnson took over Tambo Teddies from three native founders in 2014, when a lot of Queensland was gripped by drought.
“We had a meeting with the accountant and he said ‘you girls are game’,” Ms Shaw informed AAP, with fun.
The pair rapidly tripled the corporate’s income by using extra individuals to stitch the bears, taking the business on-line and creating new creatures like koalas, echidnas, lambs and dealing canine.
They arrange a stitching hub in Toowoomba which employs eight individuals, a lot of them migrants and refugees.
“It’s quite aligned with our story; we started out of adversity and these people have come from countries where they have been displaced,” Ms Shaw mentioned.
The teddies are named after sheep and cattle stations within the area like Atlam, Lisnalee and Cheero Downs.
The Queensland authorities gave Prince George a bear named Baneda Bob through the royal go to in 2014, and Denmark’s Prince Christian acquired Tambo Station Donaldson when he was born in 2005.
Each teddy – royal or not – takes about 90 minutes to make and is exclusive, relying on who sews it and what a part of the sheepskin is used.
“Sometimes they’re silky soft, other times they are a bit prickly, or they’ve got the beautiful crimp on them,” Ms Shaw mentioned.
“They’re all individuals.”
Tambo Teddy’s founders Helen Sargood, Charm Ryrie and Mary Sutherland got here up with the concept at a government-run workshop on rural industries, Ms Shaw mentioned.
Their unique objective of the enterprise lives on, as do the regional communities its teddies signify.
“Tambo does punch above its weight, as do a lot of these little outback towns,” Ms Shaw mentioned.
“We all have something to offer.”
