PART THREE � Significance
The Platypus Tool Company has fascinated me for years, and I commend to
you the article I wrote on them and their reel mowers (see Related Reading).
It was a real surprise that they not only made a rotary lawnmower but made
such an un-conventional one!
In the mid-1950s the idea that a rotary lawnmower could collect grass
was almost unheard of: There were the imported and expensive Rotoscythe
machines; the primitive after-market Emu grass catcher; the Clyde Minor
& Major; and the Rotoscythe inspired Collect-O-Matic. All of these are
highly collectible.
Nothing compares to the Platypus Rotary, though, for its novelty and,
ultimately, flawed design. This is why it is so collectible: This mower
represents a time when Australian lawnmower design was in a state of
flux � between the fight for supremacy between the skirt-less �toe-
cutter� bases and the skirted bases � the Golden Age of AUS rotaries.
The Clyde lawnmower of 1956 would influence the �conventional� rear-
catcher design approach of the 1960s � low arch, and with good cutting
and catching ability. The ultimate winners, though, would be the radical
British Rotoscythe, and the AUS Collect-O-Matic, because they saw that
the most efficient grass catching lawnmower would be high-arch and rear
discharge. It seems so obvious in hindsight doesn't it?
I do not know of any collector who has a Platypus Rotary. I have never
seen one, or any photographic evidence beyond the newsprint quality
images I have presented in this History Record.
I do hope one (or more) of these machines survive and will be found.
The issue of catching grass was in its infancy in Australia when the
unique Platypus Rotary appeared on showroom floors. We know it was
sold in Sydney and in Brisbane through the agency of C & A Wilkey.
What a magic � and odd � lawnmower!
The rest is history.
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Jack
