Who makes this timber?
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Where it started: Box Hill, in the Depression
The family's involvement in timber began in Box Hill, Victoria. Daniel Robert Dossetor bought an existing business called Westons Timber and renamed it Station Timber Yards Joinery. It was the Depression, and the cost of it fell on his son: Daniel Randal Dossetor was taken out of Geelong Grammar at sixteen and put to work in the yard for the next four years.
The joinery prospered on exacting work — church restoration, staircases and windows. That is worth noting, because restoration joinery is a different discipline from production joinery. It means working to something that already exists rather than to a catalogue, and it is the same discipline this business still sells.
Daniel Randal Dossetor joined the RAAF at the outbreak of the Second World War and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He came home, set up as a builder drawing his timber and joinery from the family yard, and became a founding member of the Housing Industry Association.
Heritage joinery - the Heritage factory floor - 2
The move to period work
Clive Dossetor became managing director in 1982 when his father retired. Through the mid-1980s he saw how strongly period-style renovation was taking hold around Box Hill and turned Station Timber Yards toward it deliberately, until the business specialised in period products rather than merely stocking them.
The joinery side moved to Bayswater and absorbed another joinery business, Karem Woodcraft. It still trades under that name as the main business, and the Bayswater workshop manufactures period-style timber products — including designs that Daniel Robert Dossetor was cutting at the Box Hill joinery three generations ago.
Clive Dossetor has served on the board of the Timber Merchants' Association for many years, including as President, and has advised three Liberal and two Labor Federal Ministers for Agriculture and Forestry in an honorary capacity.
Heritage joinery - the joinery workforce outside the Station Street works, Box Hill, 1939 - 3
The fourth generation
David Rumney Dossetor is the general manager today. His uncles — Clive's brothers, Daniel and Simon Dossetor — still work in the factory. When you ring 03 9720 1996 about matching a profile, the people deciding whether it can be done are the fourth and third generations of the same family.
Heritage joinery - turner working at the lathe in the Heritage workshop - 4
Where has this timber gone?
Matching work is invisible when it is done properly, so most of it cannot be pointed at. A few jobs can be:
- St Kilda Pier kiosk. The 1904 pavilion burned down in 2003. Working from the original drawings, we reproduced the arched internal and external window mouldings for the rebuild. It reopened in 2006 and is on the Victorian Heritage Register.
- The Oslo Hotel, St Kilda. FR4 arched fretwork panels and BS6 balustrade in LOSP treated pine, returning the 1895 building toward its original appearance.
- Norman Lodge, Mt Eliza. The 1863 Gothic Revival estate built for Richard Grice, later home to Norman Myer. Its Victorian Heritage Register listing singles out the carved timber verandah detailing.
- Coombe Cottage, Coldstream. Dame Nellie Melba's home from 1909 until her death in 1931.
- Puffing Billy. New timber carriage doors and seats for the Dandenongs railway.
- The Block. Three series, including the staircase components for the Block HQ inside the Palais Theatre, St Kilda.
- Country Home Rescue. Timber posts and verandah detailing for the 1890s Kyneton house restored by Shaynna Blaze and her family.
Heritage joinery, in the Heritage workshop - 5
What do you actually do?
We manufacture, and we match. Everything is made in Australia. Materials vary by product: our range includes LOSP H3 treated pine, CCA-treated pine, Merbau, clear pine and MDF. Our external LOSP H3 treated pine products used above ground carry a 25 year guarantee against rot, white ant and decay, subject to our care and painting instructions.
If the original is broken, painted over, rotted or simply not made any more, send a photograph or the piece itself. Ask about our timber-profile matching service; we can work from a photograph, drawing or sample.
Puffing Billy carriage with the timber doors and bench seats made for it, and a machined component
more than 120,000 Australian homesKarem Woodcraft and Heritage & Decorative Timber combined. Counted from invoices across both businesses.
