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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

G'day from Australia!

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G'day from Australia everyone! i have recently joined this club and thought i would show of my Australian Mowers, these are just a few, i have 2 Victa Utilitys, a Victa Ambassador and a Ogden reel mower that are all pulled apart. The Gardener was recently bought from a local Swap meet and we are struggling to find any information on it (although we believe it could be some type of Clyde Mower) so any info is wanted! The Qualcast Reel mower was found in a local dump a few weeks ago. So what do you guys have over there in Britain? 

kye turnbull Tue, 19/01/2016

sorry everyone i am still getting used to the image system, here is a pic of the Gardener

hillsider Tue, 19/01/2016

Hello from the UK and welcome to the Old Lawnmower Club. You have an interesting bunch of machines there, the Gardener machine looks quite solid what engine is fitted? It looks rather like a JAP

.

The pic is of a Qualcast Panther that I restored a while back. 

I did try loading a another photo but could get it to post the right way up!

kye turnbull Wed, 20/01/2016

That's a very good looking Qualcast! The engine on the Gardener is a J.A.P, i believe it is a J.A.P C.80 Model 2, i recently bought a manual for it in Ebay for $10 (Aus). Is there many people on these forums who collect rotaries or is it mainly for reel and cylinder mowers?

hillsider Wed, 20/01/2016

There a some folk on here who have rotaries but I think it would be fair to say that the majority will be for cylinder or reel mowers as you know them.

However there are folk here with a good all round knowledge of mowing machines of all types so don't let that get the way of you exploring the site and taking part here when you wish. There are some photos of mowers at our annual rally posted on the website that will give you a good idea of the mowers that members collect.

I have not checked recently but the membership directory used to show a couple of club members from  your area, but then Australia is a large place so they may not be very near to you.

kye turnbull Wed, 20/01/2016

I thought this site was mainly for cylinder mowers, though i have been considering buying a cylinder mower soon and yes Australia is a very large place! There are a lot of collectors down south around New South Wales (I am in Queensland). I am very interested in seeing British rotaries if anyone has them as i have seen very few. thanks for all that mate!

hillsider Sun, 24/01/2016

I think the majority of folk here are mainly interested in reel machines but that should not put you off from posting your machines, as far as I am aware there is no rule stating that old rotaries cannot be represented here.

If you are interested in British/European mowers and garden machinery in general there is a rather useful book that was published over here that may be obtainable in Australia and that is Seventy Years of Garden Machinery by the author Brian Bell. The publisher was Old Pond Publishing Ltd and the ISBN number 9781-1-905523-64-1.

wristpin Tue, 26/01/2016

Here's a machine that may not have made its way to OZ - a Ransomes Antelope dating from the 1950s / 60S.

Used by Councils, Parks etc before the advent of rotaries .

kye turnbull Wed, 27/01/2016

Thats a very nice Ransomes that i don't think i have seen here. I might get that book as a pressy for myself at Easter.

wristpin Fri, 29/01/2016

A couple more typical mass produced UK cylinder mowers made by the Suffolk Iron Foundry (SIF)

A Suffolk Punch 14" Mk1 from 1950/2 fitted with their own manufactured cast iron block  75cc engine which had Briggs and Stratton origins. In fact the chassis and blade carrier assembly is of cast iron construction making the machine extremely heavy for its size. The Punch name and horse decal reflect  the name of working horses  that were synonymous with the English county of Suffolk.

Suffolk 17" Punch from around the late 70s but branded Qualcast after the amalgamation of the companies , now with the 98cc Tecumseh derived alloy block engine but still with a similar  chassis design to that of the 1950s machine..

kye turnbull Fri, 29/01/2016

I have seen mowers like that here, lots of Qualcasts in Australia as well, i have heard of a rotary mower called a Farmfitters that i am very interested in seeing  

wristpin Fri, 29/01/2016

If you acquire a copy of Brian Bell's Seventy Years of Garden Machinery you will find an entry for Farmfitters. They made rotary mowers and cultivators. One of their machines had a 12.5HP Vincent (as in motor cycle) engine and another, the Bushwakka, a lethal looking unguarded out front disc blade.  Their Multi-Gardener converted from mower to cultivator and was available with either a Clinton 2-stroke or Briggs four stroke.

kye turnbull Sun, 07/02/2016

Just bought this lot. The 1956 Pace Roto-Mower is very very rare and i got it with an original manual and a slightly later fuel can from around 1960-1965 with a base to match for $110 Aus (53.69 pounds), and the rest was all around $10 each.