A friend of mine, Isaac, came across an album of photographs connected to various families including the Gilmour and Penhalluriack families. (1) Amongst the family shots was this photo of man and a boy sitting on a piece of farm machinery, which was branded 'Australian Farmers'. On the back of the photo is written 'On the harvester at Craigieburn. The lad named Hall - from Burwood.' That is all I can tell you about the identity of the man and the 'the lad' but I can tell you more about the 'Australian Farmers' company - as it turns out it was a short-lived company with grand ideas.
The photo of the Australian Farmers machine, found in an album of photographs, connected to the Gilmour/Penhalluriack families.
In February 1928, the Australian Farmers' Harvester Works applied for a victualler licence for a hotel at Craigieburn. They would use an existing eight room building, but had plans to build a brick and cement hotel with fifteen bedrooms at a cost of £8750. The Licensing Court heard that Craigieburn had a population of one hundred and sixty people within a radius of three miles.....Mr. F. Fogarty, managing director of the company, said the site of the proposed hotel was 2½ acres in extent, which the company owned, as well as 400 acres adjoining. There would be a sports ground, children's play ground, tennis courts, bowling green and swimming pool. The works would cover 32 acres. Despite this glowing report from Mr Fogarty, the Court decided that the application was premature and thus it was withdrawn. (The Age, February 16, 1928)
At this time the company was still operating in Footscray, where they had made a prototype of the harvester as there were reports of trials taking place at Craigieburn and also in the Jung area. A report in The Australasian said this about the working of the machine Owing to the even distribution of the draught, which is obtained by chains working over a pulley attachment from three points on the main transverse pieces, all side draught is eliminated, the implement being drawn evenly through the crop. The disposition of the wheels is also a variation from the general structure of these implements, and is regarded as as added advantage in relieving any side strain and in lightening the draw weight of the machine. (The Australasian, February 18, 1928)
It wasn't until 1929 that the company commenced building their factory at Craigieburn - the Architects were H. V. Gillespie (3) and Latimer of 443 Chancery Lane, Melbourne. There was a detailed description of the building in The Herald the aim of the architects was to design a well-lit and airy building of attractive appearance at a minimum cost. The building is to be of brick and timber frame construction, designed to give an economical plant and assembly line lay-out with full advantage taken of the only necessities obtainable without cost - light and air.
Large areas of glass have been introduced into the roof of the saw-tooth type facing, to admit the cool, uniform light from the south, which has the advantage of soft brilliancy without glare, or the strong and disturbing shadows cast by sunlight. Thus there will be no dark or light areas, and no fatigue due to continual adjustment of the mechanism of the eye, it being an axiom that, if a work man must peer at his work, he is not working properly.
The Interior is one of large areas without an undue number of supports. which are of timber, but do not enter the ground, thus preventing another form of industrial waste, the placing of perishable material - which includes even jarrah - in aerated earth layers near the ground surface. Actually, the posts rest upon concrete footings in posts in the ground, but resistance to wind pressure has been obtained in an interesting manner - by introducing a calculated amount of wind bracing into the trusses. The whole of the interior will be finished in white. (The Herald, September 11, 1929, see here)
As you can see from the illustrations below, the building was large. Unfortunately, the images do no reproduce very well, but they give you an idea of the size of the project.
The Weekly Times of September 14, 1929
The Argus September 17, 1929
As we said before, this project also involved houses for the workers. As The Argus said In the early stages the company realised the value of having its workmen living within easy distance of their work, and it obtained an area, which has been surveyed in collaboration with an officer of the Town-planning Commission, and negotiations are now pending, for the erection of workmen's houses and business premises. It is expected that by the middle of January [1930] more than 60 highly trained mechanics, with their assistants, will be employed at the works and by this time 12 months several hundred men, skilled in all branches, will be permanently employed. (The Argus, September 17, 1929)
The Company had gone so far as to actually name the streets in the new estate - It was decided to give streets on the new subdivision adjacent to the site for the factory the names of Dunhelen (after the original estate), Craigieburn, Station, Harvester, McCallum, Henderson, Carlisle, Gilmour, Crockett, Plumpton, Healey, Cliff and Harvey (The Herald, September 10, 1927)
Does it all sound too good be true? Indeed it was. Even in November 1929, the financial advice column, written by Harold Burston, in the The Herald was sounding a note of caution Very little has been known of the financing arrangements; but with building operations in progress, and active selling of home-blocks in the works estate to prospective employees and others, it has been generally believed that the company commanded all funds it required. However, investigation reveals that Australian Farmers' C.D. Harvester Works Ltd. is proceeding with works construction and planning for production early next year with funds that must be quite inadequate to ensure that operations can be conducted on a sufficiently large scale to give opportunities for commercial success. In fact Mr Burston writes [there is a] deficit of £10,032 in the profit and loss account. These intangibles and deficiencies exceed the paid-up capital by £2,124 and Mr Burston goes on to say the directors have been developing the company's interests with a remarkable optimism in their capacity to secure the new capital when required. Mr Burston also reported that 119 blocks had been sold, some to unemployed people who hoped that they would then get work at the factory. The blocks cost £70 each and they also had to purchase a minimum of 25 shares in the Company. As Mr Burston pointed out Should the company fail to secure adequate capital and be compelled to cease operations, Craigieburn home sites would, no doubt, slump in value.
It appears that over the next 18 months, very little happened. According to the Craigieburn Historical Interest Group (CHIG) the brick facade of the building was erected and no machines were ever made. The wall became part of Craigieburn's history - For years the front wall of the foundry stood untouched along the Melbourne to Sydney Rd and became such a prominent feature of Craigieburn that is was unofficially named ‘The Wall’. The remainder of the building was not completed until the mid 1970’s and is now incorporated into a modern factory. (CHIG) So famous was this wall was that it was actually shown in the Melway Street Directory.
Just near the Railway Station is 'The Brick Wall' - all that remained of the Australian Farmers' Harvester Works Ltd.
Melway Street Direstory, Editon 6, 1973
It is possible then that the machine in the photo that was in the Gilmour/ Penhalluriack album was the prototype that was used in the trials at Craigieburn and Jung in 1928. The CHIG post said that the founder of the Australian Farmers' Harvester Works, Francis Desmond Fogarty, was later involved in other failed ventures, but that's a story for another time. You can read the CHIG post, here, which includes a photograph of the only part of the Harvester Works built, 'The Brick Wall' which is now part of a factory in Potter Street, Craigieburn.
In the end the company was wound up on the petition of George Gustave Weinberg, of Donald, farmer and grazier. In April 1931 Mr Weinberg took action in the Practice Court, saying the company owed him £250 and Mr. Justice Macfarlan ordered the winding up of the company. The CHIG post says that 386 investors were affected. Looking back, it would seem that the fact that the company made a decision to apply for a hotel licence, before they had even manufactured one item, and had they been successful, used up valuable company resources in a non-core area, might have been an indication that hotels and land sub-division may have been the main aim from the start rather than manufacturing. However, clearly one machine was made, as the newspapers reported on the trials at Craigieburn and Jung. What happened to this machine and was it the machine in our photo? I cannot tell you that. I can tell you that Mr Gilmour never had a street named after him in Craigieburn. I wonder if he lost money when the Company was wound up?
I have created a list of articles on Australian Farmers' Harvester Works Ltd. on Trove, you can access it here. All the articles referenced here are on the list.
Footnotes -
(1) The Company is variously called in newspaper reports - Australian Farmers' Harvester Works Ltd.; Australian Farmers' Centre Draft Harvester Works Ltd or Australian Farmers' Centre Draught Harvester Works Ltd or the Australian Farmers' C.D. Harvester Works Ltd. Unless I am quoting a newspaper article, I have called the company Australian Farmers' Harvester Works
(2) Gilmour and Penhalluriack Family History information
William Gilmour married Mary Peters in 1891, they had the following children, all born in Essendon -
Flora Grayson (b. 1892, never married, died 1950)
Ruby May (b. 1895, married Victor Egerton in 1929)
Ida (b. 1898, married George Ernest Buncle in 1935)
Ernest Charles (b. 1900, married Violet Peters in 1932)
William Neil (b. 1905, married Hazel Isabel Sleeman in 1933)
In 1882 in Ballarat, William John Penhalluriack married Emma Peters. They had the following children, born in Ballarat -
Ernest William (b. 1883)
Lillian Grayson (b. 1888)
Charles Peter (b. 1897)
Mary (b. 1860) and Emma (b. 1855) are sisters - the daughters of Charles Peters and Jane Grayson. The other children were Harriet (b. 1857, m. William John Brown in 1883) and Albert Grayson (b. 1874). They were all born in Ballarat.
I am pretty sure that Mr J. G Gilmour, the 'retired Mallee farmer' who had invented the machine and prompted the formation of the Australian Farmers' Harvester Works' who came from Sea Lake according to a report I found, and William Gilmour are brothers. There is a John Gabriel Gilmour b.1876 to a Thomas Daniel Gilmour and Mary Daniel. They also had a William b. 1860. According to a law notice in the paper (March 28 1934) Probate of Mary Gilmour's will was granted to John Gabriel Gilmour of Waitchie (a town right next to Sea Lake) - so that confirms, in my mind that William and J.G. Gilmour are bothers. J.G. married Annie Tweedale in 1906.
(3) H. V. Gillespie - George Harold Vernon Gillespie (1888 - 1946), Architect. I have created a list of articles on Trove and websites, about his professional and personal life, access it here. I don't have any information about his partner, Latimer.
