Bottles and Collectables of WA

Bottles and Collectables of WA Club (BACWA) is a Perth-based organisation founded by some of Western Australia’s most knowledgeable antique bottle and collectable enthusiasts. The club runs monthly meetings, educational sessions, field digs at historical WA sites, and professionally conducted auctions — covering everything from marble bottles and Lamonts to pyro-label bottles and advertising signs. It is a genuine community built around shared knowledge and a deep appreciation for WA’s collecting history. What it lacked was any kind of digital home to match the depth of what happens inside it.

BACWA had built a genuinely active collecting community — regular meetings, well-attended digs, professionally run auctions, and a depth of specialist knowledge shared freely between members. All of that activity was happening entirely offline, communicated through word-of-mouth and traditional channels. For anyone outside the existing membership — a collector new to Perth, an enthusiast searching for a club, or a researcher looking for knowledge about WA’s bottle collecting history — the club was effectively invisible.

The challenge was not just building a website — it was deciding what kind of digital home a community-led organisation like BACWA actually needs. It had to serve both a public audience looking to learn about and join the club, and an existing membership wanting a private space for deeper discussion and exclusive access. Getting both right on the same platform, without compromising either experience, was the design problem to solve.

We designed and built a custom website structured around BACWA’s two core audiences — a public-facing platform for prospective members and the broader collecting community, and a secure members-only area for the existing club community to engage more deeply between meetings.

The public site was built around the club’s activities and knowledge base: an events calendar keeping members and prospects across upcoming meetings, digs, and auctions; a gallery showcasing antique bottles and collectables; educational resources covering WA collecting history; and member testimonials to give newcomers a genuine sense of the community they would be joining. The members-only portal provided existing members with exclusive content and deeper discussion — a private space that made the club’s digital presence feel genuinely valuable to people already inside it, not just a recruitment tool for those outside.

BACWA now has a digital home that reflects the quality and depth of the community it serves. Prospective members across Western Australia can find the club, understand what it offers, browse the gallery, and take the step to join — rather than relying on a chance encounter with an existing member. Monthly meeting participation has increased as the events calendar gives members clear, easy access to upcoming activity, and the educational resources have drawn interest from collectors and researchers well beyond the existing membership.

For a community organisation, the measure of a successful website is not traffic growth or keyword rankings — it is whether the platform serves the community better than what came before it. BACWA’s website does exactly that: it gives a passionate, knowledgeable collecting community a digital presence worthy of what they have spent years building offline.