OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Model Histories AUSTRALIAN Rotary Models Mobilco-Ariens - Ride-on Rotary Mowers - c1963

Hello ODK history lovers
The North Americans invented the garden tractor.

The tractor’s most important attachment for 1960s tractors
was the rotary mower deck. These were two-wheel or four-
wheel tractors that catered to the post-war large-acreage
suburban plots that surrounded cities and towns.

Mobilco Industrial Equipment Pty Ltd [Mobilco] was an
Australian manufacturer and importer of farm equipment;
but the company quickly diversified into horticultural and
domestic appliances in the 1950s.

Mobilco was a progressive company that used local
ingenuity but with inspiration from world markets.

There is a good argument that Mobilco introduced the
North American tractor with rotary deck to Australia in 1963.

This was the Mobilco-Ariens Emperor fitted with a 26” deck.



Ariens, an old and established North American manufacturer
[founded 1933] now makes snow blowers and garden tractors
[mowers since 1958].

They were also a garden tiller maker and Mobilco sold
their tillers in Australia in the 1960s and 1970s.

Mobilco appears to have imported (probably in kit form)
two models: the smaller Fairway 4 and the larger Emperor 6.

It’s quaint that, arguably, Australia’s first ride-on tractor
– The Rover Ranger – was a poor-man’s copy of the
Emperor [my opinion].

TO BE CONTINUED …