SIGNIFICANCEKelly Brothers�
Lawnmaster was one of the first Australian-made powered mowers to enter the market
post WWII. The evidence suggests that it was remarkably successful.
It sold widely - from its Sydney base, the
Lawnmaster was sold as west as
WA and as north as
North QLD.
It seemed to be a machine that was
cleverly promoted and marketed.
In this early
1954 article, note how
negatives are turned into
positives.
This machine was not self-propelled. That was a good thing ...
In retrospect, the unique feature of the
Model A was its
safety.
A fully enclosed rear catcher preceded the
Scott Bonnar Diplomat machines by 3 decades!
And The Diplomat won an
Australian Design Award primarily for its safety features ...
For me, the
Model B is less interesting. The
Lawnmaster became a run-of-the-mill powered
sidewheel, in competition with better machines - the
Ogden, Pope and Crowe power sidewheels,
and the extremely successful
Qualcast 16" power sidewheel.
The
Lawnmaster was probably over-priced for what it was, but it should be considered important
in being an
early post WWII Australian-made lawnmower:-