“There was a wonderful dining room with starched white tablecloths and napkins and a card menu for each table.”

Susie McMeekin, a second generation potter, was remembering the Commercial Hotel, run by Mrs. Lamb in the 1960’s. Susie was 15 at the time and had been, for the first time, allowed to accompany her father on a trip to Gulgong’s goldfields.

“We went around all the clay pits and I met Wal Evans and Phil Crossley. One of my favourite places was the Home Rule pit because it was so amazingly deep. Around about 1967 Dad took Michael Cardew, the famous English potter, to see all the raw materials in the area.”

Susie now lives and works in Katoomba, where she uses the skills and knowledge she gained from her father to create her own beautiful pots.

Ivan McMeekin and Phil Robinson investigating local limestone
(photograph courtesy of Kaye Rice)

The late Ivan McMeekin was revered by others in the potting community for his contribution to the contemporary crafts movement. His important primary research into Australian clays and glazes, his writings and his professional attitude had a great influence on many people in the field.

Ivan became interested in ceramics just after WWII when he was in the merchant navy. He spent time in China where his ship was based, and was greatly attracted to the pottery which belonged to Chinese friends. Because he could not afford to buy it, he resolved to make it himself – “as a brash Australian would”, says Susie, with a laugh. This led to his passion for perfecting glazes in order to emulate the works he had seen.

Returning to England Ivan became an apprentice of Michael Cardew at his pottery in Cornwall, before returning to Australia with his wife, Colleen, in 1952 to set up a workshop at Mittagong. This was to have a great influence on the contemporary crafts movement.

In the early 1960’s he was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Industrial Arts at the University of NSW.

Following Chinese tradition, Ivan taught that the use of locally occurring raw materials, where wood fuel for kilns was also available, was a No. 1 priority.

And so, in 1960, Ivan McMeekin began to bring students to Wal Evans’s kaolin mines. Those who could afford it stayed at the Commercial, while the others camped in Wal’s shearing shed.

According to his daughter, her father loved Gulgong and eventually the family moved to a property at Beryl where he set up a workshop in the old pigpens. A reflection of his affection was probably in the name given to the property, “Mooramaju”, a Korean word meaning, “Land of the Morning Calm”.

By this time, sadly, Ivan was debilitated by a long fight with cancer, but he was helped enormously by local potters Kaye Rice and Philip Robinson, who acted, said Susie, “as his muscles”.

Philip was an old friend who shared Ivan’s passion and has a very impressive CV of his own, having worked all his life in the ceramic industry as a research chemist and later obtaining an M.Sc. in ceramics at the University of NSW. He now lives in Mudgee, devoting himself to the making of stoneware and porcelain from local materials, building kilns and “enjoying”, he told me, “the local geography and materials”.

Kaye Rice trained with Ivan in the use of local raw materials and became very interested in the intense blue glaze of the Chinese Song dynasty. In fact, Kaye says, she found on her property, “Periwinkle”, the clay which had been discarded on the gold diggings. It proved to be ideal for use in obtaining the opalescent blue glaze she desires for her pots.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of the 1970’s the community of Gulgong was busy with its own creative activities. Mrs. Theresa Lane says, “We were always aware that the kaolin was there”.

The Opera House was being restored to its former glory and, because funds were badly needed, the Opera House Society met in 1970 and decided to open a little handicraft shop. Locally hand-made items were readily obtainable, but locally crafted pottery was nowhere to be found.

With great imitative and ingenuity, Mrs. Lane and Cecilia Barry (whom many will remember) obtained kaolin from the roadside at Home Rule and, using Cecilia’s knowledge which she had brought from her native England, proceeded to build a kiln and make their own pots which were in great demand in the shop.

Two years later a decision was made by the Opera House Committee to organize an arts and crafts exhibition with the co-operation of Dunedoo, Coolah and Mudgee. Mr. Phil Crossley, who was supplying clay to potters all over Australia, issued an invitation for all to exhibit. The whole thing was a great success and 1,000 people visited the show.

Among the exhibitors were Ivan McMeekin, Philip Robinson and Mrs. Janet Mansfield.

With the help of a government grant, a pottery group was formed and a pottery wheel and kiln were purchased. The group proved to be very active and was supported enthusiastically. Demonstrations were given by professional crafts people and many townsfolk found they possessed unsuspected skills. The exhibitions continued with much success for some years, and finally the Arts & Crafts group closed its doors in 1994.

Among the professional exhibitors who gave their time and skills is Mrs. Janet Mansfield – Janet’s story is told in Part III.

(Author’s note: Kaolin is very important to many industries such as ceramics, refractories, cosmetics, household products, paint and medicines. Good deposits of kaolin clays are rare to find so they are often given a name to identify them such as “Puggoon”, “BBR”. Potters regard clay in a similar manner to the wine maker. Like wine, pottery clays are first prepared and then stored to “age”; sometimes for several years. As the wet clay matures it becomes much easier to use.)

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