Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
Since May of 2021, Laura and Ken Veitch have been the owners of A Wee Bit o’ Scotland, an uncommon gift store that specialises in gifts and items sourced entirely from Scotland. But there’s a lot more to it than one might first think: the couple are more than happy to tell us everything, from their bestselling items that may surprise you to heartwarming stories of long searches finally bearing sweet fruit.
by Kyle Hitchmough
What was your inspiration for ‘A Wee Bit o’ Scotland’?
We did a bit of research and found that 10% of people who live on Tamborine Mountain have either got Scottish ancestry or they are Scottish themselves. We had so many people coming up, putting smiles on their faces because we reminded them of a childhood in Scotland or their Scottish granny. We always got lots of people telling us about their ancestry. It’s something that we know about, obviously, since we’re from Scotland. Every time someone hears the accent they’ve either got a Scottish granny or grandad or they’ve been there… so that was a major influence towards us starting up here.
What kinds of Scottish gift items do you stock?
We’ve got lots of Harris Tweed items. Harris Tweed can only be made in Scotland, in the islands on the west coast called the Outer Hebrides. We’ve got lots of things like bags, hats, wallets, purses, that kind of thing. We also have photo frames made out of retired whiskey barrels. With a bit of research, you can trace actually which distillery the frame was made from with a number on the back and which whiskey was in the barrel. Plus, a lot of handmade stuff from Scotland, everything comes from Scotland. Greetings cards, woolen and tartan scarves, stuff for dogs and animals, there’s a good selection. Steven Brown art, he’s an artist who started off in Glasgow. His philosophy is “Life’s better with colour,” and he does these very colourful, beautiful pieces.
Do you have any particularly popular or bestselling items?
Yes, tea towels! We have a range of them that depict different scenes from Scotland. Tartan scarves are very popular, hats and slippers, they all sell well. But every week we have a look back to see what we’ve sold and work out what our bestsellers were for the week, and nine times out of ten it’s a tea towel.
What goes into an average day’s work here for you?
It doesn’t feel like work to either of us. We really enjoy coming in. When we make up the roster for us to come in, we’re almost fighting about who gets to go in! We also really enjoy meeting people with that Scottish ancestry, and we try to help them as much as we can to discover a little bit more. People don’t realise when they ask for a specific tartan that there’s anywhere between four and seven thousand different tartans in the world, and they’re adding 150 new ones every year. We didn’t want to be just a tartan shop but when people come in asking about ancestry, we have a couple of good books we keep that we can refer to.
Are you locals? What are your opinions on the Tamborine Mountain area and community?
We used to live down on the Gold Coast for about 11 years. The Gold Coast didn’t have any community feel, but up here definitely does. It feels much more like the little village that we came from in Scotland. It feels much more community minded, and it’s cooler as well! So it’s a bit more like home in the winter.
Is there anything you personally like to do on the mountain?
We’ve got a Harley-Davidson motorbike, and we used to like going out on that together, but since we opened the shop we haven’t had much of a chance to do that! When we were setting up the shop, when we were doing markets, we liked to go over to the lookout where the hang-gliders take off from. We both sat there and watched them while we had the laptop looking for suppliers. It was very inspirational to go and relax, do a bit of work, do some forest walks at the end of Main Street… We just love it up here.
What do you think your store really provides to the area?
Variety. We did some research and there’s nothing like us on the mountain. We have a niche. And because we’re Scottish, we have a lot of control over our suppliers because we have a lot of friends and family back in Scotland to help us out. We get lots of people coming in saying “What a lovely shop you’ve got” and “It’s nice to see something different.” That’s what we provide.
What do you enjoy most about doing this?
Seeing people happy when they see stuff they’ve not seen since they’ve been here— we had a gentleman come in last week who had been looking for Edinburgh Rock, which we sell, it’s a lolly. He hadn’t seen it in 50 years, he’d been looking all over Australia for it. He was so happy. It’s things like that.
What’s been your most memorable moment working here so far?
On our official opening day, we had bagpipers here. We were giving away Scottish treats, Irn-Bru, and we had so many people come in. People know about Scotland, but they think we go about with kilts on all the time chasing haggis through the mountains. It’s nice to be able to share our culture with people who are interested with it. They wouldn’t come in if they weren’t interested.
Is there anything else you’d like to go on the record?
We’re trying to bring new things in all the time from Scotland. If you’ve been to see us once, come again in a couple months’ time and there’ll be a dozen new things in the shop. We’re trying to be as diverse as we can with our products, and we’re always open to suggestions!
We are always looking for new topics for our blog. If there’s something you like to see more of, email your suggestions to: social@professionalsserendipity.com.au, or email the writer at kyle.hitchmough@hotmail.com.
