Spring Cart with Super Spreader

“Super” is a short term for Superphosphate, a widely used paddock fertilizer produced by reacting naturally occurring phosphate rock with sulphuric acid. This process converts insoluble phosphates into forms more readily available to plants and its application increases root development and causes quicker ripening. Super was first manufactured in Australia in Victoria in 1876 and production started in Perth in 1910. By the late 1920s its use had become widespread in Australia and in 1930 production started in Bunbury. It remained Australia’s most important phosphorus fertiliser on crops and pastures until the 1970s.

It is conjectured that “super spreading” would have become common practice in the south west by the 1930s after Superphosphate production started in Bunbury.