Machinery

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SUNSHINE AUTO HEADER

A New Harvesting Machine

Over a hundred farmers recently gathered on a farm owned by Mr R Shurman, Minyup, Victoria, to witness a demonstration of a new harvesting machine by H.V. McKay.
It consists of a 12 foot header harvester into which is built a tractor, which both drives the mechanism and provides the tractive power of the machine.
A man travelling on the machine sews the bags,tipping them off in heaps of eight at a time.
The machine travels at about four miles per hour and harvests the wheat at the rate of a bag a minute. (Some crop that, eh?)
The 100 acre paddock could be harvested in two days. It was seen in a crop yielding 10 bags to the acre and all present were greatly impressed with the work done by the machine.

          

MANUFACTURER  H. V. McKAY                 #!
 

14Ft H. V. McKAY HARVESTER WORKING ON A BAD CROP AT 
W.N. SMITH' S PROPERTY, GNOWANGERUP  DECEMBR 1939               #2
 

 14Ft H. V. McKAY HARVESTER WORKING ON A BAD CROP AT 
W.N. SMITH' S PROPERTY, GNOWANGERUP  DECEMBR 1939                 #3
 
Colin Smith: …at Telyarup...was my grandfathers ... Bruce Caterer would of driven it…. It was still parked under the pine tree up till when uncle Jack sold Telyarup.
Denise Oliver Chambers: I remember the boys decided to see if it would start in the 1970’s and it did first try! I have an old photo of that day will try and find it for you!
Glen Oliver: These were available from the mid 1920's on, and I know Gnowangerup farmer A.H Allardyce had one, as he sold a McKay (Sunshine) 12ft Auto-header in his clearing sale in march 1930. There is still one on display at Gnp at the old Sheep Shed on the way to the Sporting Complex. They were powered by a Fordson engine and needed 2 blokes to operate. One as a driver and another as a bagger, who worked on a platform behind the engine as it went along. A pulley on the unit meant it could be used in the off season to drive other machinery like chaff cutters, pumps etc.
 

H. V. McKAY HARVESTER WRKING ON ARTHUR ALLARDYCE'S PROPERTY                 #4
 

H. V. McKAY AUTO HARVESTER AT WORK                 #5
 

Every endeavour has been made to accurately record the details however if you would like to provide additional images and/or newer information we are pleased to update the details on this site. Please use CONTACT at the top of this page to email us. We appreciate your involvement in recording the history of our area.

 

References:                 Article:       The Gnowangerup Star, 6 March 1926

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Copyright : Gordon Freegard 2024