Context When I started researching vintage Australian mowers I shared the myth that many Australians hold - that Mervyn Victor Richardson's Victa was the first Australian rotary mower.
It was only after a number of years that a serious anomaly questioning the myth gradually took form. There was overwhelming evidence of the role that electric rotaries played in the four years prior to the Victa release in September of 1952.
The machine I discovered to be Australia's first rotary mower was the little 10 inch Tecnico released in mid-late 1948. The frustration was that I had no name or face behind this large Australian company that could be deemed the 'inventor'. This all changed with the 2012 re-release of a 1951 film that explained many things, and I had a name and a face - Cyril Thomas.
Cyril Thomas We know pretty much nothing about Mr Cyril Thomas. He's not in the history books. In fact, he seems all but forgotten everywhere. The film tells us he lived in the Sydney suburb of Mortdale, and that with a 'glass of beer inspiration' the AUS rotary was born.
The film says he worked as a Machine Shop Superintendent and showed his plans to Senior Executives. Note the framed picture of an aircraft in their office - this was Tecnico.
Here is that film:-
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Note on this film The NTFS (National Film & Sound Archive) released this film for public viewing in 2012. Made by the Australian Government National Film Board in 1951, this important film provides new and cogent evidence identifying our first rotary mower.
Note on this research I first posted this research as Victa: An Inconvenient Truth, January 16, 2013 on vintagemowers.net
