Hello all Contributors

As Forum Historian I feel compelled to say something here.
Paul is a mature collector who has an innate sense of the important.
Many times, he has saved mowers that could have easily been lost.

I am grateful that many collectors are helping preserve Australian
lawnmower history. We are making inroads in educating many collectors
to look beyond the 'trendy choices'.

If I may put Victa and the reels to the side here, I would like to express my
thoughts on this collection's contribution to Australian vintage mowers.

Top rank must go to the Clyde Rotary and the Exceller Collect-O-Matic.
Both are 1950s machines and are extremely rare. I have identified the Clyde
as our first rear-catcher rotary. The Collect-O-Matic is an enigma; in that
it was our most technologically advanced rotary of the 1950s, but its importance
seems to have been misunderstood or ignored.

Second rank would have to go to these:

Turner - this was Turner's first 2-stroke model. This machine is
important because Turner would be amongst the Big Players of the 1960s.

Villager - made great 'toecutter copies in the 1950s and posed a
threat to the big players. Their cooling system (on early machines)
was quite novel. Villager would survive the early sixties but lacked
capital and distribution to compete with the big players.

Atom Mofast - Mofast was one of the earliest makes to recognise
the importance of a 'mower range'. Though they did not survive to see much
of the 1960s, their styles reflected the modern 'space age'.

Colda - a rare machine that reflected the desire of post-war
manufactures to expand their horizons in the booming appliance market.
A refrigerator company ventured into lawnmowers in the late 1950s.

Southern Cross - another company that struggled to adapt to
post-war Australia. Early designs are interesting in that SC made
the total mower - engine and chassis. Not too many manufacturers can
boast that! These are, again, rare machines.

HG Palmer - The most important of the mass retailers of the
1950s and 1960s. They had a range of exclusive store brand mowers
of great quality. Unlike today's mob, they did service what they sold.
Their downfall: poor accountants and over-ambitious management.

All very collectible.
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Jack