PART EIGHT - Our Lawnmower Industry
In this article I have presented new research about the early days of our
lawnmower history. Australians were manufacturing lawnmowers at least a
decade before the momentous tariff protections of the 1930s, but it was
the protections that turned a few pioneering manufacturers into a viable
Australian industry. Alas, not much of that left now!
This article focused on an overseas company Qualcast coming here.
Though foreign owned, benefits (apart from profit) accrued here. Local
employment, both direct and indirect, and the development of Australian
'know-how' all contributed to secondary industry.
However, it should be said, Qualcast's role was highly symbolic.
The main object of the protective tariffs was to foster local production
by wholly Australian-owned companies. To this end, the tariffs were
successful.
Qualcast was just one of the 'big three' of the interwar years.
The other two were wholly Australian enterprises. These were Crowe
Engineering and Clyde Industries. Of these, Crowe should be considered
a true Pioneer; in that it was making lawnmowers from about the mid-1920s.
For them, the tariffs enabled significant expansion of production; whereas
Clyde's entry into lawnmower manufacture was a direct result of the tariffs.
And this says nothing about the other, smaller players that commenced
production because of the tariffs. There is so much that has not been
told yet. But Qualcast's coming to Australia is a significant part of
this important vintage mower story.
The rest is history.
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Jack
