Leah Willian was raised in a home full of antiques. And when her parents passed on, she decided to let go of their collection. “Once everything was sold, I realised that I really enjoyed the game of buying and selling and recycling.” 

She tells me every piece carries its own story. “There's some things that were very hard to let go of that might have told a story throughout my family through my parents, grandparents and their parents.” She says the pieces eventually forge new stories for different people. 

She recalls a chair fit for a queen she once found at her parents place. 

“It was a red velvet quilt chair, I did used to love sitting in it. And then one day, I just decided, I think this would look fabulous in my shop. Of course it did. And of course someone bought it immediately. I just love that story, carrying on to another family.” 

Leah’s calling from her antique shop; Rocket and Belle in Ballarat. But her journey began in Daylesford, at the Mill Markets, with a friend. 

“We had quite a lot to sell. And once it was all sold, I remember quite clearly, my friend said to me, “Well, we've sold everything now we might as well close our store down.” And I said, “no, I really, really enjoyed this.” 

So she rang another likeminded friend, “his nickname was Rocket, and he was a collector. He lived up up in the Mallee area.” They decided to go into business together. “And so we called ourselves rocket and Bell, we didn't really have a name, and I didn't want it to be Rod and Leah.” 

It wasn’t long before Rocket and Belle outgrew the Mill Markets and moved to Leah’s father’s old industrial tin shed in the middle of Ballarat. Rocket moved on, so Leah went solo while keeping the same. She began to focus on specialising in antique Australian pieces that expressed a sense of time and place. 

“Some of the furniture that we're selling or recycling at rocket and belt has been around since 1840s. We love to sell depression era pieces, like a cabinet made out of cheese boxes, made out of whatever they could find back then.” 

The pieces of the depression era were often hand carved, artisanal items that pine for the ornate precision of the Victorian style, softened with the passion of a utilitarian sentiment. 

“There’s something about making do with what you have around you. It was the depression. So there's creativity, and there's passion, and there's usefulness. They really tug at your heartstrings because there's also there's an emotional aspect to a piece of depression furniture too, because it's from someone who had nothing.” 

These days in Ballarat, young couples who have recently moved to the country are visiting Leah to decorate their homes. “And they're finding out the history of their home. What I'm learning about their passion is that they want to put things into their home that's from the era when it was built.” 

Rocket and Belle capture the sentiment of something American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson meant, when he said, “our admiration of the antique is not admiration of the old, but of the natural.” 

You can find Rocket and Belle at 

'The Shed on Mair' 

37 Mair Street West, Ballarat. Thursday, Friday and Saturday: 11am till 4pm 

rocketandbelle.com.au