Obsessed with old stuff, Tim Bowcock sells treasures hunted from around the state. Photo: Tenele Conway.
As I exit my car onto Bungendore’s main drag and home to Village Emporium, I’m met with a curious scene. Tim Bowcock, owner of said antiques store, is bent over in front of his shop clipping his lawn with a small handheld pair of 1930s clipping shears. Sensing my amusement, Tim launches into an explanation for this antiquated mowing method. “I used to own a whipper snipper, but this just seemed easier,” Tim states while holding the rusty shears up as evidence.
After 15 years in the antiques game, it’s apparent that Tim’s love for old stuff has gone to his head, but that commitment to his craft is what makes the antiques store an indispensable part of the Bungendore community.
If you haven’t picked up on it yet, Tim is a character, the kind of character that keeps Bungendore from just being a commuter suburb of Canberra, and the store is more than his business, it’s a passion and a lifestyle that sees Tim drive all over the state hunting for treasures.
“I think there’s something more authentic and true about old stuff,” Tim shares.
“You know when you get an old desk and there’s a burn mark from a cigarette or there’s 15 burn marks on one desk, you know some people think it’s ruined, but that’s what makes it cool. It’s a sense of history; it’s something that’s been loved, and here it is just going through time.”
Tim swears he hasn’t always been like this, but after completing university, an endeavour that Tim calls a personal waste of time, it was a Graduate Diploma of Cultural Heritage Management that had him hooked on everything old.
Tim’s antique finds help keep homes in the region from being boring. Photo: Tenele Conway.
Formerly known as Village Antiques, Bungendore, the shop itself has been in town for more than 20 years, with Tim being involved in the past 15 or so of those years, eventually buying the business when the opportunity came up. We don’t delve into the brief but devastating closure of the shop which occurred a few years back; it seems like a deep well that doesn’t need digging into, and at the end of the day, the town is just glad to have him back.
We both agree that it’s an anchor business in town, and its loss was felt deeply by residents and visitors alike, with Tim sharing that it attracts people from all over the state.
Tim feels a part of the drawcard is the scale of the shop that makes it a destination worth driving for.
“You see people walk in, and they say, ‘I’ll just pop in for a quick look,’ and then an hour later you see them down the back just astounded at how much there is to look at.”
The scale is one thing, but Tim’s flair for merchandising his products is as big of a drawcard.
Rows of ducks stare out from beneath dramatic foliage, all gathered in a vibrant urn. Old and new sit side by side in imaginative tableaux that make you wish you left your weary credit card at home. Fat little Michelin men wave from a countertop that just happens to be a 1940s library card storage system, and a regal deer head overlooks the scene, his eye on the world that Tim has created.
Tim mixes old and new together in eclectic displays. Photo: Tenele Conway.
When moving onto the topic of why there is always new stock coming and going from the shop, never staying long enough to stagnate, Tim puts it very simply: ‘We’re cheap’.
Tim prices his stock to move; it helps him keep his treasure-hunting addiction rolling.
“I get excited when stuff arrives but also when it goes because then I get to go and look for the next thing,” Tim laughs.
“It’s a sick feedback loop; it’s an addiction. I’m an antique junkie.”
Tim has an eye for merchandising and does all his own shop displays. Photo: Tenele Conway.
It becomes apparent when talking to Tim that antique hunting isn’t all grand estates and opulent mansions and much to the town’s amusement, Tim documents his antique-centric lifestyle on social media with regular and hilarious anecdotes about his buying trips.
“I can’t tell you the thousands and thousands of doors I’ve knocked on just going, ‘I’m that guy who’s come to look at that thing.”
Tim recounts a rundown fibro house full of holes in Sydney where he climbed over the long necks in the hall to get to the supposed treasure, unsure if he would be seen again. On the flip side, he’s been to mansions on Sydney Harbour where surprisingly down-to-earth folk have him in for a cup of tea. There are also plenty of dodgy leads where people want big money for stuff that Tim knows won’t move.
“No-one wants your boxes of old railway hooks,” Tim laughs.
And that’s a part of the job. Despite it all being old, even old stuff is subject to trends and just like John West, what Tim leaves behind is just as important as what he takes for the store.
Village Emporium and Boutique Nursery is located at 32 Malbon Street, Bungendore and is open 7 days a week from 10 am.
