Housed in a rough-built timber and corrugated iron building in Nundle, Australia, Odgers & McClelland Exchange Stores was first built and used as a shop in 1891. When the current owners took over in 1998 it was mainly in its original condition. A lot of elbow grease went into updating the structure, whilst retaining its history and character. Decades of dirt and grime were removed, rotted timber pole foundations replaced, and gas light fittings were restored.

No longer operating on the barter system, the shop now functions as general merchants, full of practical and handsome goods for living. Odgers and McClelland Exchange Stores serves the 300 inhabitants of Nundle, visitors to the town, and online customers. Half their daily business is over the counter transactions, and the remainder sending parcels throughout Australia (unfortunately international shipping is unavailable). The shop serves the community with items ranging from tea to coffee; brushes to glassware; ceramics to linen tea towels; and one of the most extensive ranges of enamelware available in Australia.

"It is a great compliment that customers go out of their way to visit us. It is the sensory experience of being in the store, smelling loose leaf tea, soap slabs, millet brooms, and tung-oiled floor boards. Seeing the 125-year-old patina on the doors, packing case shelving and tin-lined walls. Touching brushware made from horse, goat, coconut and Tampico, and developing a taste for the artisan licorice, boutique ground coffee or condiments."

Duncan & Megan Trousdale, the shopkepers at Odgers & McLelland Exchange Stores

Megan and Duncan Trousdale moved to Nundle from Sydney. Duncan drew on his retail experiences as a student in Sydney to become a shopkeeper, creating an income source in a small town of sheep shearers, graziers, timber workers and teachers. Megan a former journalist for several Australian lifestyle magazines established the online store and manages social media. Duncan views their role as shopkeepers as connecting their customers with products they need or want. Together they have built their business based on the history of the shop, sourcing the same as or similar items that were available when the shop first started trading 125 years ago. Generations of Nundle residents have shopped at Odgers and McClelland Exchange Stores, and Megan and Duncan love continuing that tradition, chatting with customers and hearing their stories.