OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Company Histories ALEX GRAHAME - The Lawnmower King - c1890

PART FOUR – The Thirties
Despite the hardships of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, the
Alex Grahame Company prospered in the mid-to-late 1930s; becoming
importers of many UK and European brands. They would also begin
manufacture of some of their own products.

The 1930s records reveal the company was growing.
Many advertisements title the business as ‘The Great Eastern and
Western Lawn Mower Hospital’, and Alex Grahame as the ‘Lawn Mower King’.

Alex Grahame was not the self-proclaimed ‘Lawnmower King’
without good reason. In terms of power mowing in Australia,
the company was there pretty much from the start, and the
makes and models were impressive …

DENNIS AGENCY
The Dennis Brothers Lawnmower agency should be singled out;
because Alex Grahame held this exclusive Dennis Agency for many
decades. This was a real coup!

These were respect commercial mowers of the day and they were used
by many leading councils, including Sydney City Council. Grahame
referred to Dennis as the ‘Rolls-Royce of Motor Mowers’ in some advertising …



Also note the company had a showroom at 549 Parramatta Road,
Leichardt at this time ...



By the mid-thirties Alex Grahame clearly had an inventory that
livedup to the company’s claim of being a ‘Mower King’.

They offered push, horse, petrol and electric mowers.
They were also selling their own mowers and the Australian-
built Gravic mowers.



By 1936 Alex Grahame had the capacity to not only manufacture
their own mowers but also offered duplicate [spare] parts for other
makes and for other local sellers. Alex Grahame was no small, local seller.



GANG MOWERS: -
A special mention should be made about gang mowers.
Although an American invention (1919), gang mowers ‘took hold’
in Australia in the 1930s. They solved a big problem: how to cut
very large areas of grass. The idea of gang mower was made
possible by the invention of the tractor, and tractors became
much more common – and affordable - in the thirties.

The Late 1930s was in the shadow of the imminent and terrible WWII.
It is no surprise that Alex Grahame was involved with Gang Mowers
used for military purposes. The Aerodrome was central to war effort
and Grahame help the sole agency in NSW.



Also, the market consisted of municipal bodies -
who wanted to develop public parks; sporting clubs;
and golf clubs. The latter explains why gang mowers
were sometimes referred to as ‘fairway mowers’.

Clearly, Alex Grahame saw the commercial and military market,
and help agencies for Ransomes and Shanks gang mowers,
and the Exclusive Agency for Green’s gang mowers.

CONCLUSION: -
By the end of the 1930s Alex Grahame was clearly a major
seller of all types of mowers. The situation is nicely summed
up in this advertisement from early 1939.

Most popular Australian power mower: Scott Bonnar; most
popular imported power mower: Atco; Everything else in terms
of power mower – from Britain and Europe - was pretty much
being sold through Alex Grahame!



TO BE CONTINUED …