The Jimmy Possum chairmaking tradition of Northern Tasmania is not a lost trade, nor a rare trade – it is a living, unbroken tradition. This unbroken tradition is the title and theme of a survey exhibition at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) which runs until May 2023. The tradition speaks of Australia’s history, aesthetics, and make-do creativity. In a time when furniture makers cram their workspaces with machinery, tools, and jigs, this 150-year-old tradition’s simple work practices and technologies provide a beacon for sustainable production.
Jimmy Possum chairmaking is Australia’s foremost vernacular furniture-making tradition. It is bound to the people, landscape, and history of the Meander Valley; its geographic specificity is a unique material cultural expression in this country. Unlike other furniture making traditions, the Jimmy Possum tradition relies on oral histories and folk memories to tell its story; there is little textual or photographic evidence about the tradition and none about Jimmy Possum himself.
The survey exhibition includes examples of the mysterious eponym, Jimmy Possum, the subsequent historical Meander Valley chairmakers who adapted his design, and the
