OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Model Histories SCOTT BONNAR Models MODEL - BON - a Handmower - c1930s

Hello ODK History Lovers

The Scott Bonnar Bon Pushmower was a result of changing events in Australia
in the 1930s. A lot of the creative flurry at Scott Bonnar appears to have
occurred at the most difficult of times - the Australian Depression of the
early 1930s - and this seems to have given the company time to design a range
of lawnmowers that signified an optimism for great expansion of the company
in the years ahead.

The 1930s would produce a new range of Scott Bonnar products - some
specifically made to compensate for a decline in lawnmower sales - e.g.,
the ESBE brand rotary pumps, bean slicers... and a sidewheel mower!

However, in the 1930s, Scott Bonnar expanded its range to include its first
commercial hand-propelled lawnmowers, petrol-powered motor mowers, and
horse and tractor driven gang mowers. Whilst prosperity resumed by the mid-
1930s, any production and resultant sales would have been clearly limited to that
short few years before the outbreak of hostilities that became that horrible
Second World War. Most lawnmower production would stop for the cessation.

I have argued that the Australian lawnmower industry really began in the 1930s.
At this time the vast majority of lawnmowers were hand-propelled. It is not
surprising, then, that Scott Bonnar produced its first hand-propelled lawnmowers,
not the cheaper and more popular side wheels though, but a range of quality reel/
roller mowers - the Bon, the Standard, The Dux, and the Putting Green Mower.

How many were made is anyone's guess, but my guess is ... not many.

The Bon is, arguably, one of the least known of them all.

I have just one illustration of a Bon, taken from an International Boring Company
(IBC) Catalogue from 1939. Note that 'Scott Bonnar' and the AUS flag appear on
the catcher (with grab top handles) , and 'Bon' appears on the scraper and name
plate above the rear roller.



TO BE CONTINUED ...

PART TWO - Specification
The Bon was essentially based upon the Scott Bonnar electric Ace lawnmower,
a smaller version of the Standard design of the late 1920s.

The Bon reflects Scott Bonnar's experience of Shanks' and Green's lawnmowers
they sold (and converted to power) in the 1920s.

Available in two sizes, the Bon had a cast iron frame and an 8 blade reel.
An interesting feature is the double chain drive, indicating this was a top-end machine.

The lift handles on the catcher indicate English influence.
Here is the specification from the same IBC Catalogue held by the Queensland State Library:-



I have just a couple of adverts for the Bon.
The earliest I have dates from early 1934, and sold by the
Engineering Supply Company of Australia [E.S.C.A.],
early sellers of Scott Bonnar in Queensland:-



No examples of the Bon have been found, and that's a pity to us ... for the record
of remembering the history of our most important pioneering firm, Scott Bonnar,
in lawnmower manufacture in Australia.

SCOTT BONNAR MODELS


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