Yellowbelly Barber opens in Oxley Street, Bourke

Barber Alex Clark, practices his skills on his son, Axel, at Bourke’s newly opened Yellowbelly Barber and Music Studio. Photo TWH

You would have to go back to the late 1960s to find a Barber shop in the middle Bourke’s Oxley Street CBD.

Back in those days Lester Holland ran a small barber shop from out of tiny premises near the doorway of the present Bourke Betta store.

In those days Lester had a runner who kept him supplied with middies of Resch’s Ale from the Post Officer Hotel across the road.

Lester would have a smoke and a beer while handing out the classic ‘short-back-and-sides’ hairdos, and it wasn’t just hair trimmings that fell down your collar.

Barbers have cleaned up their act since those days.

So much so that it’s good music and haircuts that now go together in Oxley Street, Bourke, thanks to the long-awaited opening of the Yellowbelly Barbershop and Yellowbelly Studio.

The establishment of the dual music studio and barbershop has been supported by Nakama Arts through a private initiative funded by Tag Technical Audio Group.

The unique facility has been in the pipeline for some time, according to Chris Hamer-Smith from Nakama Arts.

“We’ve been working on it for a couple of years,” Mr Hamer-Smith said.

“At first, we set up a temporary music studio at the local Aboriginal Health Service. We trained up a couple of local people from the community – Lorraine Dutton and Stephen Wilson. They learnt sound engineering and recording and were running the studio there for us.”

“The idea was to create something that the community could access and take ownership of as well. […]

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