“Man wanted to work in workshop, must be able to do work on his own.”
But in 1986, Footscray resident Lachlan Fisher was looking for work – and he got the job.
Little did he know his future clients would include Australian cricketing superstar Ricky Ponting.
Bat maker Lachlan Fisher in his workshop. Photo by Nicholas Duxon
These days, Fisher is Australia’s only independent cricket bat maker – and he has been handcrafting them for the past 25 years.
Fisher’s iconic Williamstown Road shop is every cricketer’s dream. The 60 or 70 brand new bats lining the walls just make you want to have a hit.
Adjoining this is his workshop, where shelves and benches are laden with bats in the making, the floor covered in wood shavings.
He takes me through the workshop and into his kitchen – where we sit at the kitchen table he built and share a cuppa.
He immediately comes across as a genuinely nice bloke, with a passion for making bats – and an incredible work ethic.
“A lot of work suits my personality… I love the grind,” Fisher says.
Now 54, Fisher has calcification in one shoulder, and RSI in one elbow. He’s still as keen as ever, but nowadays has to knock out 20 bats a day, then rest for three or four days.
It typifies why in his younger days he was a gritty opening batsman– and he thinks it might have something to do with his Scottish heritage and country upbringing.
Despite cricket’s decline in population, Fisher is still grinding away – fighting against overseas competition, and what he calls the “Bunnings mentality”.
“There’s a mentality out there… really not over the fact that something’s made, by hand, in Australia, with a good warranty, with care and detail,” Fisher says.
He says the dimensions of the bat haven’t changed since – but the game of cricket has.
“Hand eye coordination is a hell of a lot better. It’s a batsman’s game.”
Not that they’re making any more runs.
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While working at Maddocks Sports in the late 1980’s, Fisher contemplated the idea of growing his own “English willow.”
“They said it can’t be done, and I said that’s not right”.
In 1991, he imported genuine clippings from England. In 2005, he began cutting trees and making bats from them.
Fisher still has to import the highest quality willow from the UK – as only one in five Australian trees makes the top grade.
The “vertical integration” is Lachlan’s passion – and he watches his bats from the moment they go into the ground to the moment they’re sold.
“It’s not a business, it’s a lifestyle,” he says.
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Fisher studied painting at Deakin University in Geelong, where he met and married his wife Josephine, who sadly lost her battle with secondary cancer 12 months ago.
In 1986, the Fishers moved to Melbourne, but Lachlan struggled for work as an arts teacher.
Scouring the paper, he was hired by cricket manufacturer Maddocks Sports, where he made up to 1,000 bats a year for the next seven years.
“I taught myself to use the drawknife. They had a moulder which was terribly dangerous. I refused to use it… I could see people getting injured”.
In 1992, Fisher went out on a limb – and Fisher Bats was born. It still occupies the same Williamstown Road address today.
“I had a back up plan to be a landscape gardener, and spend the summer making bats,” he says.
Within two years he was crafting bats full time, and never had to resort to ‘Plan B’.
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Over the years, while customizing bats for all shapes and sizes, Lachlan has had many different requests.
“An American guy came in and said if you make cricket bats you can make a baseball bat… Yeah I did that.”
Former Tasmanian cricketer Scott Mason was selling bats for Fisher in the Apple Isle – and by chance Ricky Ponting tried them out.
For two years, Fisher custom made bats for the former Australian captain.
“I never told many people at the time. He paid for six at a time, but I never met him,” he says modestly.
A quick smile assures me the list of names goes on – but unfortunately they’re “off the record”.
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After 25 years, the western suburbs ‘willow wizard’ is starting to think about retirement.
However, his son Finn, a budding musician-come-chef, is noticeably his first priority. Renovating the home kitchen for his son is something he plan’s on doing in the near future.
In terms of bat making, he says “another 10 years – maximum”.
“I’m starting to think about it now. I’ll probably look to sell the business, the label. It won’t be worth much, but maybe someone’s interested.”
For the time being, everyone from aspiring 14-year-olds to cricket’s elite will be wielding a Fisher blade when they walk to the crease.
“I’ve got 400 blocks in the shed, there’s a name on every one of them eventually,” he says.
One can only imagine whose names those will be.
