PART TWO

This photograph from 1938 depicts a sulky mower, its power unit, and its operator.
The mower would have belonged to the Brisbane City Council
(the Council is also the source of this photograph).

I wonder who the operator was; and what was the horse's name?

I have no doubt, however, that this was a Shanks' Sulky mower.
People are often surprised when I tell them that gasoline-powered lawnmowers
(introduced in 1902) received a slow take-up in Australia. Prior to WWII, the most
common municipal lawnmower would be horse powered!

Here is my 1936 Shanks's Catalogue illustration of what I have identified as the mower
in the photograph. It's a Shanks's Triumph. I do not know enough about horses to explain
why the operator is dismounted from his sulky. He paces behind, maybe to quickly stop and
remove debris from the mowing path (pine cones, seeds, or the like); or maybe the horse was
just a flighty beast, not to be trusted. I don't know.

[Linked Image]

The rest is history.
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JACK.