Lydiard Furniture and Antiques to turn 35 on 17 June 2026

IT was an icy cold day on 17 June 1991 when I moved into 205–207 Lydiard Street North.

Then it was a ramshackle old tin shed built in segments by Angus Linklater, who had run a restoration business there for 37 years.

I would like to thank all the people who I have dealt with while running Lydiard Furniture and Antiques over the past 35 years.

I would especially like to thank the following people, in some cases posthumously: my family, Heather Ronaldson, Angus Linklater, David Richer, Matt Simkin, Len Cooper, Alan Boyd, Jenny Garley, Noel Dobbyn, Karen Doveston, Nicole Rush, Sherryn Bailey, Neale McSwain, Paul Rush, Michael Billings, Ross Jones, Graeme O’Brian, Linda Blake, Diane Tunks, Digby Mark, Kevin and Stanley Merlin, Ken Turner, Graeme Davison and many others for their help over the years.

The first winter was gruelling! Every Sunday I had to call the station master to come and open and close the railway gates.

Despite the hurdles, the business thrived as cast iron beds and antiques were all the rage.

Fashion is fickle so we diversified and expanded with an extension and the purchase of the two-storey shop next door.

We still have the cast iron beds and antique furniture but have included a whole range of other items from outdoor furniture and garden art, to glassware, tools, toys, iron lacework, records and a myriad of collectables.

We cast a wide net embracing hundreds of thousands of items.

If you want a slotted screw, a surgeon’s amputation kit, a Ballarat Bertie statue, we are a chance.

Where is that book, record, piece of china? We just might have it!

Thirty-five years on and into the future, I thank you Ballarat.

Peter Wills

//SPONSORED CONTENT