Faces of Bega: Livestock farmer to antique store owner - meet Jason Sawaqed

It turns out they were two donkeys that were rescued and re-homed by shop owner Jason Sawaqed.

Jason has owned the shop for the last five years. When he got hold of it to rent he transformed it into the space it is today, with open plan areas, bold regal colours on the walls, and rugs over hardwood floors from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Turkey.

"When I started this shop in particular, a lot of my friends, family, and people in general said it won't succeed, they were always hesitant and I said, 'well you watch me, I'll make it work,'" he said.

Jason considers the work he does all about reusing and recycling and said about 30 per cent of the pieces in his store have been restored. Anything he can't sell will be taken apart for timber or hardware like handles, locks, or keys.

"I learnt restoration techniques by pulling things apart and putting them back together. It's really simple, you don't need a degree in it," he said.

He said his secret is that he doesn't make a huge profit margin on the pieces but rather focuses on getting unique stock in that people will like and can afford.

"Most people have got this thing that antique dealers are rip offs or antique furniture is expensive, and I'm trying to prove the other way. It's not expensive for what it is, and I know what people want to pay," he said.

The journey into antiques began in Sydney in 1989 when he sold secondhand furniture. The real learning came when he started being able to identify pieces after spending hours looking at and talking about furniture.

He's a man of merchant blood though and told the story of his great-grandfather who rode on camel back from Jordan [where he lived until he was 12 years old] to Turkey on the Silk Road to collect rugs to sell. The story goes that he would swallow gold on the trail to save it being stolen from thieves and pass it three days later.

But it's not just merchants in his family. The practice of his ancestors was farming and so he has always felt connected to a life on the land.

"My grandparents had a farm in Jordan and it was mainly sheep and wheat, which is what I would have liked to farm."

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Although he has roots in Jordan, Jason said in Australia he learnt what true freedom feels like.

"In Sydney we had choices, what to do, where you could go, those choices weren't available to us in Jordan, so the freedom to live and enjoy what we've got is incredible. I think a lot of Australians don't understand how lucky we are in Australia," he said.

His first experience of living on a farm was on 4000 acres in Western Australia. He spent time shearing and mulesing while also running a roadhouse that sold food and fuel.

"That's what got me involved in the country lifestyle."

After WA he moved back to Sydney, but after just 12 months he decided to leave again as he said he felt claustrophobic and wanted to be back on the land. He found himself on an acre of land in the Southern Highlands and remained there for 18 years before moving to Bega.

"One of my dreams was to own a farm but couldn't afford one in the Southern Highlands so I drove here, fell in love with the area, and bought a farm back in 2011."

He purchased 250 acres from renowned Bega Valley dairy farmers the Hetherington family.

He raised beef cattle and Merino sheep until he had to sell the farm following a marriage breakdown, but that's what led him to pursue another dream to sell antique furniture.

He said he wasn't going anywhere - "The people are fantastic, I've never met nicer people, they're very friendly" - not to mention his love of the beaches, water, and greenery.

These days Jason works seven days a week and wouldn't have time to run a farm, but said his work doesn't really feel like work and instead, "it feels like pleasure."

He now lives in town with wife and registered nurse at South East Regional Hospital, Sylvana Tierney.

The furniture in Maggie and Rosie's Antique Emporium is usually sourced from Sydney or Melbourne and many pieces have come from England or Denmark. He purchases the pieces from auctions and warehouses.

Prior to the current Sydney COVID-19 outbreak, he would travel every fortnight and load his truck with pieces sourced in the city in order to really touch, feel, and look at the pieces up close.

Now he is endeavoring to source more local pieces, but most of what he sources locally is antique wares like old milk cans which always sell fast. Some of the items from the area he keeps for his own collection and hopes to one day open a museum of antiques from the area.

Jason loves Australian made colonial cedar furniture which dates from the 1830s until the 1870s. His other favourite style is English Georgian furniture which dates from the 1770s until 1820s.

His advice for anyone who is unsure about whether antique furniture will suit their home is to start with two or three pieces that will work in any home whether modern or old. He said often people chose a piece and are just amazed at how well works in their homes.

The quality of antique furniture is what Jason really wants to stress to people. He said that too often people resort to buying low quality furniture made from chipboard that will not last, "and they spend good money, they're not cheap".

But for a few hundred dollars more, people could buy a piece that would last 100 or more years.

"All our pieces are one off, very rarely do you see two pieces of furniture at two different times, it just doesn't happen," he said.