From the family shed to Ceduna’s main street, two brothers build a barber business

A new barber shop in Ceduna is being described as the town’s first in nearly 50 years. Its barbers, though, are no strangers to the customers: some have been getting haircuts from the Coleman-Ware brothers since the work was practice on family and friends. The premises are new; the relationships are not.⁠¹⁠²

Brothers Tjerayh and Tjeryan Coleman-Ware have moved their haircutting operation from the family’s back shed onto the main street of the South Australian town where they grew up. By November 6, 2026, when ABC published its report, they were running their own shop, bringing together skills learned at home, formal qualifications and customers who already knew their work.⁠¹

That is the substantial change here—not the arrival of the first haircut in decades, but a permanent business built from something the brothers had already been doing for people around them.

Tjerayh was 15 when he first picked up the clippers. His account of the beginning is less a business pitch than a practical problem shared among the boys around him: “Just growing up with all the brothers and all that, there was no-one to cut our hair, so we’d just take it in turns cutting each other’s hair,” he told ABC. “I started to enjoy it a bit more than them.”⁠¹

That interest became haircuts in the shed at the family home. Younger brother Tjeryan watched and wanted to have a go himself. “Just seeing him cut hair makes me want to try, and I guess that’s what got me in,” he said.⁠¹

Customer Daniel Newchurch-Lawrie remembers those early efforts. Tjerayh practised on cousins, starting with straightforward haircuts and becoming more technically accomplished. Friends and relatives knew whom to ask when they wanted a cut, including before football started. Those requests gave the work a place in local life long before the brothers had commercial premises.⁠¹

The bridge between home-grown experience and a shop was local training. In 2024, Tjerayh heard about an opportunity through Ceduna Aboriginal Corporation to complete a Certificate Three in Beauty and Barbering. The corporation is a community-controlled, not-for-profit organisation working toward social and economic reform for Aboriginal people in the region.⁠¹

Both brothers completed the course in 2025 and received their qualifications in 2026—separate milestones in the same progression. They already wanted a shop of their own. “We pretty much flew through everything as quick as we could,” Tjerayh recalled.⁠¹

About two months before the November report, a shop came up for lease and they decided to take the chance. That dates the opportunity to secure premises, not the first day of trading: the exact opening date has not been established. Tjeryan considered the risk worthwhile and said the community was showing them love.⁠¹

ABC South Australia describes the business as Ceduna’s first barber shop in “five decades”; ABC AM uses “nearly 50 years”. The historical gap has not been independently verified, and the reports do not establish exactly what qualifies as a barber shop for that comparison. It is best read as an attributed account of the gap between shops, not a complete history of local haircutting.⁠¹⁠²

There is a concrete reason to keep that distinction. In July 2022, ABC reported that the visiting Walkabout Barber service provided free haircuts in Ceduna. That visit does not establish an earlier permanent shop, so it does not by itself contradict the decades-long claim. It does show why “no barber shop” cannot be taken to mean “no access to barbering”. Nor does the claim establish what other hairdressing services residents used.⁠¹¹

The ownership claim also has a boundary worth preserving. ABC reports that the brothers’ shop is 100 per cent Aboriginal-owned and operated, and the only such shop on Ceduna’s main street. That exclusivity has not been independently established. More importantly, it is a main-street claim—not a claim that theirs is the town’s only Aboriginal-owned business.⁠¹

Neither qualification makes the brothers’ achievement smaller. Its significance does not depend on proving that nothing comparable existed anywhere nearby. They have taken an informal service, added training and secured a place to operate it themselves in their home town.

Family remains part of the daily business. A younger cousin helps sweep the floors after school. Earrings made by the brothers’ mother and little sister are sold from a stand on the counter. These are modest, specific contributions: family involvement measured in a swept floor and goods for sale, rather than grand claims about economic transformation.⁠¹

For Tjerayh, the most immediate measure is the person leaving his chair. He likes helping someone who arrives unhappy with their hair and how they look. “And then after leaving the chair they feel better about themselves,” he said. The new shop gives that familiar work a main-street home.⁠¹