Newmarket Oral History: Neale Begg - Part 1

Neale Begg (b. 1957) speaks to interviewer Virginia Macleod. As a master saddle maker, Neale is one of the last of his kind in Sydney—and his story is deeply tied to the culture of Newmarket and the surrounding racing community. Raised in Randwick, with a horse-trainer father and a teacher mother, Neale grew up around the stables. By age 12 he was already helping local saddler Harry Smith in Barker Street, and at just 14 years and nine months he began a hands-on apprenticeship with George Davidson in Bourke Street, later continuing under J.P. Talty in Haymarket. Neale’s work has always been shaped by the racing world. His time as a trackworker taught him how a horse moves and feels under saddle—knowledge that guides every piece he makes. While imported saddles are cheaper than his raw materials, Neale specialises in custom work for jockeys, focusing on balance, weight, durability and the fine details of leathercraft. His workshop, once on Anzac Parade and now at Randwick Racecourse, is filled with traditional tools: knives, hammers, a sewing machine, and a well-used leather strop. Beyond saddles, Neale creates everything from bridles and girths to wallets, menu covers and film props. A member of the Saddlers and Harness Makers Association of Australia, he stands as the last practising saddler in the city.

                 Today is Saturday, the 9th of September 2017 and I'm speaking with Neale Begg, saddle maker, and we’re meeting at the Randwick racecourse where his workshop is.  We’re talking together for the Newmarket Stables Oral History Project, and my name is Virginia Macleod.

                 So good morning, Neale, and it’s great to be in your workshop here and all surrounded by bits of leather and tools and we’ll talk about them soon.  Can I just ask what year you were born, first?

                 I was born in 1957.

                 And where were you born?

                 Paddington.

                 Paddington, right.  And who were your parents?

                 My father’s Neville Begg.

                 And he’s a horse trainer?

                 He’s a horse trainer.  He’s a horse trainer here at Randwick, for thirty five years.

                 Yeah, a long time – well-known locally.

                 A long time.

                 And your mum?

                 My mum, she was a schoolteacher.

                 And did she teach you at school?

                 No, no, n, noo.  There was six of us – I'm the oldest.

                 And where did you go to school?

                 I went to school at Randwick Public, then I went to Randwick Boys’ [High School]

                 And did you enjoy school?

                 I weren’t a good student.

                 You weren’t that interested in book work?

                 No, no, I weren’t a good student at all.

                 So how old were you when you left school?

                 I left school at fourteen and nine months.

                 And what did you decide to do then?

                 Well, I always used to go help the old saddler, in Barker Street, and I went in and got apprenticed as a saddler.

                 Right, so you'd been helping him out from a young age?

                 From the time I was about ten years old.

                 Great.  So you were already apprenticed, really.

                 Yeah.

                 And what sort of things did you help him with when you were that young? 

                 Just cleaning up and, dyeing the leather, and punching holes, and just normal sort of stuff.

                 And what was his name?

                 His name was Harry Smith.

                 Harry Smith.  And was he a good teacher?

                 He was in Barker Street.  Oh, he was a terrific saddler and, good teacher.

                 So you just loved being in the saddle shop?

                 Yeah.

                 And did you do a formal apprenticeship, once you'd left school?

                 Yes, I did.

                 And what did that involve?

                 That was five years on the workbench. You had to do five year apprenticeships, when I left.  And I went to George Davidson [Saddler]– they were in Bourke Street in the City – and I was with them for two and a half years.  Then after two and a half years I weren’t learning enough, so I went to another saddlery company, down off Goulburn Street - - -

                 Do you remember their name?

                 - - - called J.P. Talty [Saddler, Cunningham Lane, Cunningham Street, Haymarket], and they had twenty tradesmen and every tradesman had an apprentice.

                 So it was like you had a one-on-one teaching relationship?

                 Yeah.  And they'd been going for over a hundred years.

                 And with them you learnt a lot more, did you?

                 I learnt a lot of different things, but I was pretty accomplished when I went to them.

                 Yeah, I was thinking you'd already done quite a bit.

                 Yeah.  After I'd been there for six months I had two apprentices, myself.

                 Before you'd even finished the training?

                 Finished my apprenticeship.

                 But it’s a different way of learning, that, isn't it, when you work alongside someone?

                 When you're working opposite someone on the bench, you learn to do it their way, or they don’t show you.  And every tradesman was completely different, but you learnt to do it exactly the way they told you, otherwise they wouldn’t show you again.

                 You had to follow and no arguments?

                 Yeah.  That wouldn’t happen today.

                 No, it’d be very different today.

                 Yeah.

                 What happens today?  They go to courses at TAFE?

                 It’s hard to find anyone to teach, for a start.

                 Not interested?

                 No, not really. But it’s hard to get someone to follow what you tell them.

                 Even when you’ve got them, yeah.  And do you think that’s because you probably hung around horses and stables a lot when you were young, whereas, perhaps, young people today aren’t having that experience?

                 Well, even when I was apprenticed I used to ride track work for my father.