PHOTOGRAPHY ABBIE MELLE
Jodi and her children on their property outside Yass in the Southern Tablelands of NSW.
Sign up to our mailing list for the best stories delivered to your inbox.
After moving to Yass in 2011, Jodi thought it would be simple to pick up a pure merino wool jumper to keep out the chill.
WORDS PENNY CARROLL PHOTOGRAPHY ABBIE MELLE
All Bow & Arrow orders come with a handwritten note.
Flossie’s pull-over sports the brand’s Liberty print elbow patches.
All of Bow & Arrow's jumpers are machine-washable.
Jodi loved renovating her 120-year-old cottage outside of Yass.
Bow & Arrow's neutral tones are a hit with customers.
A cosy corner on the verandah.
Jodi wears a Bow & Arrow funnel-neck jumper.
This watercolour by Jack Commins is a McColl family heirloom.
PHOTOGRAPHY ABBIE MELLE
Jodi and her children on their property outside Yass in the Southern Tablelands of NSW.
PHOTOGRAPHY ABBIE MELLE
Jodi preparing to send one of her designs to a customer.
“There was the odd piece, but it was mostly a blend or really high-end,” Jodi, 41, explains. “I thought, I’m living in the heartland of a fine-wool-producing area in Australia and I can’t find an Australian merino jumper on the shelves in our stores.”
Yass, about 60 kilometres north of Canberra in the Southern Tablelands of NSW, was particularly crisp that winter. Jodi recalls enduring a week of minus six-degree mornings not long after moving into the fixer-upper cottage she and her husband, Tim, 41, had bought. “I remember calling my mum and saying, ‘I can see frost on the carpet, it’s that cold!’,” she says with a smile.
Disappointed, Jodi shelved her wardrobe woes for a few years until her daughter, Flossie, was born, and the hunt for a pure wool children’s jumper turned up similarly lacklustre results. This time she decided to do something about it, dreaming up a line of fine merino wool jumpers for kids and adults under the label Bow & Arrow.
The concept was simple: Jodi wanted to create affordable, quality wool jumpers that were easy care for everyday wear. As a child she’d spent school holidays at her uncle’s mixed farm in northern Victoria, “riding horses and helping in the shearing shed”. The experience instilled in Jodi a deep appreciation for wool. “It’s such an amazing fibre; it keeps you cool in summer and warm in winter,” she says. “I really wanted to see people wearing Australian merino wool.”
From idea to fruition was an intense 12-month research journey, exploring everything from manufacturers to inclusive sizing. The first range included a scoop-back jumper for women and crew-neck pull-overs for men and children in a classic colour palette. “It was pretty basic, and I thought, ‘How we can jazz this up a bit?’,” Jodi recalls.
Her solution was to add elbow patches in Liberty prints and tan suede, giving the jumpers a little English-countryside polish.
PHOTOGRAPHY ABBIE MELLE
Jodi reading a magazine on the front verandah of her property in NSW's Southern Tablelands.
PHOTOGRAPHY ABBIE MELLE
Jodi started Bow & Arrow because she wanted to see more Australians wearing Australian wool.
“I just had so much self-doubt,” she admits. “It’s such a big risk — will people want to buy this product? That’s what I kept doubting in myself, will they wear it, will they like it, have I got the design right? I wanted a design that people could put on every day and not save for good.”
She got through it by turning to friends and family for honest feedback, and “just trying to put the right foot in front of the other”. When Bow & Arrow finally launched in 2015, Jodi was relieved at how well it was received.
“It’s such an amazing fibre; it keeps you cool in summer and warm in winter,” she says. “I really wanted to see people wearing Australian merino wool.”
Despite her fears, the range was exactly what Aussie wool-lovers — including several of Yass’s own wool-growers — were looking for. Bow & Arrow now has 40 retail stockists and a loyal online customer base.
“They’ve come back year after year and supported me,” Jodi says. “That’s what keeps me going.”
Jodi was keen to repay the favour to her stockists, particularly those in Victoria, during the COVID lockdowns. As an online business Bow & Arrow escaped the worst of the pandemic, but Jodi was rocked by the impact it had on the stores that had backed her from the start — even now, her voice catches as she recalls the hardship they faced. “I really tried to help my Victorian stockists, I even took back stock,” she says. “It was really hard for Victoria.”
Although she grew up in Numurkah in country Victoria, Jodi describes herself as a “townie” who never envisaged settling down in a regional hub of just 6500 people. But then she met Tim, a country kid from Cowra, and everything changed. The pair lived in Canberra for three years before moving to Yass. “It’s a great place to live and bring up a family,” Jodi says.
“It’s a really friendly town. You walk down the street and you always know someone — you don’t feel isolated.” When she needs it, she taps into support from the town’s innovative small-business community. “It’s a real bonus living in merino wool-growing heartland,” she adds. “You’re always learning something about the product. I really treasure that information sharing.”
Now a mum of two — Flossie is seven and youngest Freddie is four — Jodi runs the business from home around the children’s busy school and day-care routines. “It’s a juggle!” she says. “I get up an hour before the kids in the morning to get on top of emails and get everything sorted for the day.”
Adding complication to the challenge of building a start-up from the spare bedroom, Jodi and Tim were knee-deep in renovating their cottage when Bow & Arrow launched. “We have an old shed at the back of the house and I was wrapping jumpers in the cold with a hundred layers of wool on at times,” she explains. “Renovating houses is my other dream,” Jodi says. “But, one thing at a time!”
For more information, visit bowandarrowshop.com.au
Subscribe to Graziher and never miss an issue of your favourite magazine! Already a subscriber? You can gift a subscription to someone special in your life.
To hear more extraordinary stories about women living in rural and regional Australia, listen to our podcast Life on the Land on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
The Olympic gold medalist chats to Graziher about her love of the land and how the work ethic her parents instilled in her from a young age has helped her persevere through setbacks and injuries.
The emergency physician reckons a by-product of the family’s cheesemaking operation has healing properties for skin.
When you buy from a rural or regional business, you make someone’s day. You also get something unique, infused with a love of the land and an understanding of life beyond the big smoke. We’ve rounded up 13 ideas for a very merry bush Christmas.
We’ve compiled a list of some of our favourite shops around the country and online.
Hailing from a long line of keen riders, Callie Coles continues the ways of her English forebears: a life of tweed and tack rooms. Here, the Instagram star shares some of her favourite things with us.
