THE LAND Bush businesses push for Aussie made support to help rural towns thrive
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By Eliza Spencer 25 May 2025
Pioneering historic leather care, while supporting regional communities
Nat and Fonz Corbett, Holbrook, established Best Leather Care with transparency top of mind and a passion for preserving methods lost to time. Aiming not just for Australian-owned and made, the couple took a lesson from the history books to highlight the care given to leather goods in times long passed.
"We had a foundation recipe that was used in both the First and Second World War ... the only thing we changed from the original recipe was that we removed the kerosene," Fonz Corbett said.
"This is what our grandfathers, or our mates, used to make. It's very much linked to a colonial style leather care."
Over a decade, Nat and Fonz slowly sourced all-Australian ingredients; essential oils from lemon myrtle in WA, beeswax from local hives and apiaries across the east coast, and the star ingredient of beef tallow sourced from a rendering plant in Shepparton, Vic.
"We had the time to be able to find most of the ingredients, source them, and then ramp it up," Mr Corbett said.
"We wanted to highlight that it's not just beef tallow we're using, all ingredients are Australian ingredients ... You're returning the natural fats and oils back to where they came from, so it penetrates straight away. "
With the ever-looming threat of supply chain insecurities, relying entirely on Aussie ingredients and suppliers was a 'no brainer,' for the couple.
"I used to make candles in a small way, and during COVID, I realised how slow everything was," Nat Corbett said.
"The Australian companies I was buying from got their jars from China, and it was such a long slog waiting ... it left you hamstrung."
Beyond international concerns, the simple truth, Mrs Corbett said, was the large impact even a small purchase makes for Australian producers.
"We need to really lean into this, and we need to send a message to our politicians ... if we can start an Australian-made product, and we can manufacture, there's no other reason why others can't either," Fonz Corbett said.
"It's just about looking at your systems and processes and bringing it into the 21st century, and realising that it doesn't have to be that difficult. If a husband and wife can do it, anyone can do it."
"It's paying a family, and a community," Nat Corbett said.