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Busselton Historical Society > Records

Sunshine Grain Grister

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Sunshine Harvester Works

Overview

The Sunshine Grister (or Grinding Mill) was a device used for grinding grain into meal for stock feed and would have been powered by a small portable engine.

Historical information

This Grister was made by Sunshine Harvester Works, Victoria, which was an Australian factory making agricultural equipment founded by industrialist HV McKay. The name "Sunshine" is assumed to have been given to the harvester works by McKay after he attended a lecture by the American evangelist Reverend Thomas De Witt Talmage who visited Victoria in 1894.

By 1906 McKay’s most successful invention, the Sunshine Harvester, had gained the reputation as the first successful combine harvester in Australia and his factory had become the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. In 1907, following a residents' petition, the locality of the factory was officially renamed Sunshine in honour of it. By 1911 the number employees had swelled the local population to such an extent that the town of Sunshine was touted as the "Birmingham of Australia". In 1924 the company was credited with the development of the world's first self-propelled harvester. By the time of McKay's death in 1926, the factory covered 75 acres.

In the 1950s the McKay family sold Sunshine Harvester Works to Massey Ferguson.

Details

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-124-2022.14

Item type

Material

Inscriptions and markings

CPG16
SUNSHINE

Contextual Information

Gristers would have been used by local farmers to make stock feed from their harvested grains.

Grister manufacturers maintained that that grain fed as meal saves waste, gives greater nutrient to the animal and increases profit.

Keywords

Place made

Sunshine
Victoria
Australia

Primary significance criteria

Social or spiritual significance

Related Objects

Related Objects

Parent records

The Old Butter Factory Precinct

Busselton Historical Society

Busselton Historical Society

Organisation Details
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Other items from Busselton Historical Society

Sunshine Grister

Sunshine Grister

Artist’s impression of the HV McKay Sunshine Harvester Works

Artist’s impression of the HV McKay Sunshine Harvester Works

Publicity Flyer - H.V. McKay Massey Harris Sunfeed, Feed Grinding Mills,1956

Publicity Flyer - H.V. McKay Massey Harris Sunfeed, Feed Grinding Mills,1956

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