General News
2 December, 2024
Decluttering leads to business venture
Well known community identity, Jo Donnelly had the idea to launch their store 'Dimboola Vintage' when she was in the midst of decluttering her home during the Covid lockdown.
Surrounded by a sea of precious ornaments she had collected during her years in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, she decided to recreate her living room - inside a shop.
She says it was one of the best ideas she's ever had.
"It's just enormous fun," she said.
"We're really here to entertain people.
"Once we set up, the idea took off and we started collecting.
"Bruce now has a large stock of antique electrical generators that the older kids love to see in action.
"He asks them if they want to see lightning – they always do."
Jo said she likes working with Bruce as a partner, because the two are so complimentary.
"Bruce likes the technical side, he likes to know how things work," she said.
"His side of the shop is more of a museum.
"My plan was to discover new pieces for my 'living room', so when a family comes into the shop, we can cover them all, because of our different take on things.
"We like to leave our visitors with a great experience to remember, they don't have to buy.
"We want to create great memories for them, we want them to remember Dimboola and come back, and we find that they do."
Jo's career was in Airforce communications, so retail is quite a departure for her.
She said that when she first visited Dimboola it touched her heart, "and Bruce's too," she said.
"We thought, wouldn't it be great to live here"?
"The layout of the town was fantastic with the beautiful river and the ideal location in proximity to other towns."
Following that, things just fell into place.
They made the move from Perth.
Jo loves the community and the way everyone says hello in the streets.
Coming from the city, she was shocked the first time some teenage boys, she took for hooligans, greeted her politely as 'Mrs Donnelly' in the street.
Because both Jo and Bruce think in community terms, they are not competitive with other businesses.
They share and recommend other shops, as empty shops don't help a town, they say.
And the Donnellys' focus is always on the town.
Bruce Donnelly likes to know how things work.
He's fascinated by antique gadgets – in particular, electrical medical quackery: the 'how and why' of it and the destruction it caused in people's lives.
As partner/proprietor of Dimboola Vintage he has filled his side of the shop with the most remarkable collection of antique electrical appliances.
Most of his superb early-20th-century pieces are fine examples of electronic machine art.
"I do think of it as art," he said.
"I never studied physics – I wish I had – but I never stop learning."
Among his medical collection is the Overbeck's Rejuvenator, a three-pronged device which, with a hefty zap, not only claimed to restore the body’s youthful vigour, reverse baldness and restore colour to grey hair, but also promised to cure serious medical complaints.
And therein lay the problem..."people died because of believing in things like the Rejuvenator," Bruce said.
"They died because it meant they didn't get the correct treatment for serious problems.
"People bought into this quackery – it's unbelievable what people will swallow."
What is truly shocking, is that a modern version of Overbeck's Rejuvenator is still being manufactured today – and people are still buying into it.
Gadgetry aside, what Bruce likes best about running Dimboola Vintage is the people.
"I love learning about the people who come into the shop," he said.
"I can spend hours talking to people who come in, the thing I like best about Dimboola is the people."
When it comes to Jo, Bruce agrees that he and his wife work well together because they are 'absolutely' complementary.
"I've got my side and she has hers and it works," he said.
- LOU MASON