Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
One of the most unique storefronts on Gallery Walk, Bygone Days advertises itself as an ‘Eclectic Emporium’. Owner Karen Ann Wilbur explains what that means as she takes us a tour of the wonderous curios she sells.
by Kyle Hitchmough
How long have you been operating the store? How did you get started?
I’ve had the store on Gallery Walk for about 14 years, and I’ve been in this position for two years. I’ve moved around on the street, a lot of shops tend to do so, and I’m renting from the owner of the building. The café we share with is actually a separate business entirely. I lived in northern NSW and I wanted to have a little craft store. I decided to m ove to Mount Tamborine and open a little shop on Gallery Walk because that was what I always wanted to do.
Can you explain to us what ‘eclectic emporium’ means?
I’ve always loved old world things like antique lace and vintage products. When I say eclectic, the shop is full of a bit of handmade, bit of vintage, bit of antique, new, and craft products so you can make your own, gifts, things like that! It’s a little bit of everything and in a beautiful building.
You note on your website that you also sell steampunk items. This is a rather niche subculture: how did you get involved in that?
Mainly because one of my suppliers, they do the art deco, the art nouveau, and one of their ranges is the steampunk. So, I thought we’d put it on the website! We haven’t got much of it in the shop, but when people want it, I can just order it in. They can look through the catalogue, I ring the company and they’ll send it straight out. My shop actually used to extend through almost this whole building, and then the owner realised the café didn’t have enough room, so we downsized.
Do you find you sell more of a particular kind of an item than others?
I think that probably my favourite item in the shop, and bestseller are my leather and brass items, like the nautical things. Spyglasses, compasses, sundials… I sell a little bit of everything, all the time, but the most persistent sellers are these nautical products because they’re great gifts for the guys. It can be hard finding gifts for men. Hats are good sellers too.
What goes into running a place like this?
Most of the shops on Gallery Walk open between 10 and 4, so they’re nice hours, only six hours a day. But I’m always online or putting my orders in at home, at night-time I sit up doing my orders, I make things, go to the sewing room, I might get up early in the morning and make earrings… So pretty much my whole day is filled for the shop. It’s a full day, not just what you see in the shop. And then if I’m in the shop, if it’s quiet and there’s not many people around I’m never idle. There’s always something to make, or clean, or move… Sometimes I find you can have slow days, but with the locals, if they come in and everything’s in the same spot it looks the same, so you want to make it more interesting and keep it creative and refreshed.
Do you find you have a certain kind of clientele?
No, it’s always varied. There’s no rhyme or reason to our clientele. Every day is different: one day you can get a busload of tourists who have come off a cruise ship, you get buses of people from retirement villages, you get locals who are bringing their visitors from overseas, just locals coming out for a day… weekends are always the busiest. Mother’s Day is the busiest day of the year, everyone wants to bring their mum to Tamborine Mountain. Funnily enough before Christmas it’s very slow. You get some people who will shop local, though, before Christmas you will get a lot of local people who want to get the unique gifts.
Are you a local? What’s your opinion on the Tamborine Mountain area?
I am a local. It’s a beautiful area to live, perfect climate, always cooler than the Gold Coast or Brisbane, great community, lots of things to do… You don’t need to go off the mountain if you don’t want to. If you live up here, it’s actually more practical than being on the Gold Coast. A lot of people say it’s too far from a hospital or whatever, but we’ve got three ambulances up here so you’re only ever five minutes away from an ambulance. There’s plenty of doctors… there’s everything you need up here. And there’s schools. I moved up here because of the schools. Nineteen years ago with four high school kids. There was a high school here, now we have two, three primary schools and three day-care centres so families are taken care of as well. It’s the perfect community.
What do you enjoy most about doing this?
That I can be as creative as I want to be! My own times, my own hours, if it’s raining, I don’t have to come in! But I do. I just love it. In a way my shop is an extension of myself. Everything I have in my shop is a product I like. I don’t sell things I don’t like, so it really is doing what I love.
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Or email the writer at kyle.hitchmough@hotmail.com, and follow me on Twitter @realcasualrvws.
