OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Model Histories AUSTRALIAN Power Reel Models GRAVIC REEL MOWERS - c1922

Hello ODK History Lovers

Gravic lawnmowers were manufactured by Grant & Vickery of Barnstaple Road,
Five Dock, N.S.W. This company is clearly a pioneer Australian lawnmower
manufacturer, commencing business before the tariff protections that
established the Australian lawnmower industry in the 1930s. This is a
historically important company, sharing its like with Lark, Parkes & Company
of Sydney; and the great Scott Bonnar Company of Adelaide.

'Gravic' was the clever combination of the first three letters of the
company's founders' surnames: Robert Grant & Stanley Vickery. Gravic -
gravity - was also a metaphor for a 'weighty' or important lawnmower make.
I think it was.

Whilst I have discussed this company in the Companies Forum [see Related Links],
this posting is devoted to the two types of powered lawnmowers they made:
their petrol engine powered reel mowers, and then their gang mowers,
powered by horse or tractor. These will be discussed in turn.



TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART TWO – The First Gravics
THIS is a 2021 UPDATE to this History Record.
[This part will be inserted as a new Part Two in this section]

When I wrote a History Record on Grant & Vickery in Company Histories
in 2016, I knew the clues were there – that they were probably making
powered lawnmowers as early as 1922.

I had the patents for a drive and a frame (intended for lawnmower use)
from that year but I could find no advertising records that the mower
went into production at that time.

It was a recent lucky find in the Bulletin of 1923 and 1925 that provided
the smoking gun that Grant & Vickery were indeed pioneer power
lawnmower makers in Australia.



This would place Grant & Vickery and Scott Bonnar as being almost
on par in the claim to being Australia’s first power mower maker.

There is a catch …

When one has a close look at the first Gravic power mower it is clear
that the chassis in an imported manually powered reel/roller mower.

My best guess is that the mower chassis is based on a
British Greens Silensmessor of that era - but modified to take
a clutch, engine, and engine frame.

The great unknown is the engine. It presents as an air-cooled two-stroke
of unknown origin. The engine appears to be fitted to a frame covered
in the 1922 Grant & Vickery patent.

So … in the early 1920s both Scott Bonnar and Grant & Vickery appear
to have been converting imported push mowers to power. Scott Bonnar
used an imported electric motor for their first mowers; Grant & Vickery
chose a petrol IC engine.

It is arguable that Freddie Larke’s New Moon of the mid-1920s is our
first true powered lawnmower – in that it used an Australian built engine
and chassis. You decide.

TO BE CONTINUED …

PART THREE - The Later Petrol & Electric Powered Reels

The Reel-Roller Gravics were offered in a few sizes and with electric or
petrol power units. Whilst it is unclear when they were introduced, the
first advertising records I have found date to 1931.

Sizes appear to have been 14, 16, 18, and 30 inch, and motors varied - early
machines powered by English J.A.P. 4-stroke engines, but by 1939 there is
clear evidence that Briggs & Stratton 4-stroke engines were also offered
(making the Gravic the first Australian lawnmower to use this engine).

Typical advertising captured the British sentiment of the time - that
British-made products were not just well-made but ... superior. The Australians
cheekily adopted slogans that catered to these sensibilities. The Gravic was
the 'Rolls Royce' and an 'Aristocrat' of lawnmowers. Grant & Vickery and their
agents did not push 'Australian-made'.

[I mention this because not all companies succumbed to the 'Tall Poppy', the
term coined to describe this inferiority complex. Scott Bonnar, as the best
example, was fiercely nationalistic - as a matter of pride - and advertised
their products as good as or better than the imported one.]



Though information is scarce, there appears to have been an earlier design
of the Gravic reel-rollers, and then a later design. The 'New Gravic' seems
to have entered service in 1939. Note the higher side frames in the earlier
design; the more modern, lower frame in the latter. These ad photos date
from 1938 and 1939 and show JAP and Briggs engines.



The Gravics were a sophisticated and modern design. They had plate steel
frames (rather than heavy cast iron), metal catchers (rather than metal
and wood), and an enclosed transmission. Interestingly, they offered dual-
drive, with independent clutches for the reel and roller.



Images: courtesy Silensmessor.

That the electric Gravic reels should be powered by Crompton, Parkinson
motors is of some amusement ... as the Crompton, Parkinson factory was
right next door!

TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART FOUR - The Gravic Gang Mowers

By the mid-1930s Grant & Vickery were manufacturing Gravic Gang Mowers.
This would make them one of only three Australian manufacturers to do so:
Scott Bonnar (c1933), and the lesser-known Berrigan (c1933).

The Gravic gang mowers were advertised throughout the 1930s by Motor Tractors.
All lawnmower production would cease during the war years, and recommencement
would begin post-war in about 1946. Alex Grahame, whilst continuing to sell
Gravic petrol and electric mowers, never advertised the Gravic gang mowers ...
for the obvious reason that they were the State Distributor for the English
Thomas Green's gangs.



I have good evidence that Gravic gang mowers sold quite well in NSW and
some even made it as far as Tasmania, a small island to the south of the
Australian mainland. Records show that many golf clubs and municipal
councils bought Gravic gang mowers.

I know nothing about the specification for these Gravics, beyond that
they were full-size 30 inch units, and were heavy duty - so a serious
competitor to the Scott Bonnars and imported Ransomes, Shanks, Greens,
Lloyds and etc. Here is a SMH ad from April, 1950.



TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART FIVE - Conclusion

I do not know of any collectors having a Gravic in their collections.
I have no Photo Record of these seemingly well-built and designed machines.
I remain optimistic that some will be found, now that there is this recognition
of their existence.

I have argued here and in the article on Grant & Vickery in the Company Forum
that Gravics should be considered some of the very first power lawnmowers made
in this country. I place them in that select group that started manufacture
before any government assistance in the form of tariff protections. At this
time, the British and Scottish lawnmowers dominated the power mower market,
and the Americans dominated the push side-wheel market.

It was pioneers like Mr Scott Bonnar (Standard), Prosper F. Lark (New Moon),
and Robert Grant (Gravic) that, against all odds, made our first power mowers.

The rest is history.
------------------------------------
Jack

GRANT & VICKERY COMPANY


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