OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Finding and Swapping Rare Finds & Donations Scott Bonnar Gang Mower

Recently found this Scott Bonnar gang mower laying disused. I wonder how many people have collected one of these. (I'm not going to, but hopefully I can save it from scrapping and add it to a museum collection)

Just like half a dozen model 45's running around at exactly the same time eh ? but with only one operator.

That's not fun is it ?

With the current false economy in Scott Bonnar's at the moment I'm sure someone will hand over plenty of coin just to say I have one of those.

Cheers,
BB.

G'day Geoff and BB
Geoff, great to hear from you again!

For those not in the know, Geoff is a relative of SB designer Sid Bowditch.

Geoff, these great images are distressing - in that this gang unit seems abandoned,
as new technology took hold. Friction-drive gangs gave way to the hydraulic drive units
in the 1970s.

These gangs present as totally serviceable - if only parts were available!

Unfortunately, the Model 14 has never been viewed as 'collectable'...
mainly because they were always industry lawnmowers.

This gang unit is a more modern quintuple with a single point attachment
and hydraulic unit raising, c1970s.

I hope this unit is saved to a museum or the like.

Folks forget that friction drive gangs cut our airports, parks, and sports fields
from the 1920s. They enabled sport and recreation to be expanded on a
large public scale.

These areas didn't cut themselves.

Geoff, sincere thanks for the work you do in recording and saving our history.


Folks will enjoy your photographic records: -

https://www.flickr.com/photos/94854784@N06/albums/

----------------------------
Jack

Thanks Jack.

Hopefully it will be saved as a piece of South Australian history.

When I worked at a council I spent many hours rebuilding these, mainly because others didn't want to.

Funny, it never made a difference back then that they were Scott Bonnar. Must be getting old!

This South Australian roller was used on the same oval to roll the pitch. It's on the way to a Museum to be saved.

Geoff

Hi Geoff,

Without the makers plate, that is just another old roller, the plate dates it as 114 years old so that makes it worth keeping even though it never get more than a quick glance at it and the plate just gives it that wow factor. The mower will still only attract the same attention and only people with an interest in them will ever understand effort and design that went into it. I guess that is pretty much what all museums are about, the curiousity factor

If you can tell the story of the company behind the item a lot more people are interested, the item itself is almost secondary. Thankfully many earlier manufacturers put on cast plates, these days the stickers or the painted on name disappear and you can't tell who made it.

Hi Geoff,

I wonder what the thinking was regarding manufacturers putting such elaborate cast plates on their equipment, they must have been costly to produce even though labour was much cheaper back them but it was still relative to the costs at the time. I doubt they were thinking that in a hundred years time it might be important to anybody.

G'day Norm and Geoff

I am chaffing at the bit here...
My best guess is that makers' plates and agencies' plates were a natural
progression from attestation in letter writing!

They were statements of importance!

Of course "Yours Faithfully" carried the baggage of religious faith.
The faith was about the product of man's labour.
It was that important, it was in the image of deities or a deity!

I have seen makers' and agencies' plates from the earliest days of
garden machinery. They reflect this pride in human endeavour.

Oh, I should mention, that makers plates originated when calling cards
were the go, in a World without phones or the internet.

They acted as a proud statement and advertisement!
Where do you get it? Whom do you contact?

Cheers
--------------------
Jack

Sadly it's all changed..........................and for the worse I might add.

Now reads......

Made in China !