Cultivating Careers

When the NSW Government established the system of Experiment Farms, the aim was to turn out practical farmers in order to improve agricultural capacity. To achieve this, the Bathurst Experiment Farm School was established in 1897 and would train over 850 students until the school closed in 1941. This register of students enrolled at the […]

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Carried Away

Sparks flew as the blacksmith pounded his hammer against this iron spike, red hot and just pulled out of the forge. After tapering the short rod to a point, he hammered the top to form a dog head-like projection. Then he marked the head with ‘W W / C C’, the initials of the West […]

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Weighty Ideas

Along with the forge, the anvil was the most important tool in the blacksmith’s kit.  Using the anvil, hot metal was ‘worked’. It was repeatedly hammered and shaped around its angled and conical edges. Imagine the loud clanging blow of a hammer forming the metal, while the whoosh of bellows pumped air into the forge […]

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