Top of the Crop

Farmers have harvested wheat from the fertile soil around Inverell since the 1850s, when the town was established on the land of the Gomeroi and Ennewin peoples. By the late 1920s, when this trophy for a crop of wheat was awarded to JF Morris of Hopgrove, near Inverell, land was becoming scarcer as towns grew. […]

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Raising Wheat

Think of running your fingers through your hair and this is the simple idea behind the Headlie Taylor’s crop lifter. It has been claimed that this invention not only saved the bumper 1920 Australian wheat crop but secured the reputation of the Taylor Header Harvester in the process. Patented in 1917, early designs were made […]

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What’s in a Comb?

Inspiration comes from many places. Sometimes an object’s story is much bigger than simply what it is or did. Hinting at what inspired Headlie Taylor’s (1883-1957) innovative agricultural inventions, this comb also reveals the story of the dynamic Henty community the designer was a part of. This comb is known as a short comb, most […]

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Boyhood at Fairbridge Farm

collection of slightly damaged toys of farm animals

On 12 February 1938 the SS Orama left London for Australia and among its passengers were twenty-eight child migrants. Edwin Lambert, one of these children, boarded the ship clutching a suitcase that held his clothes, a science book and these small toys. As the ship eased away from the wharf Edwin waved goodbye to his […]

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