Museum president Peter Whiley bubbles with enthusiasm over the project. 

“Despite its short history since European settlement and relatively small population, Australia has generated a remarkable number of important inventions in the last 200 years,” he says. “We have achieved at a level well above what would be expected for a country of its population.”

Warming to his subject, Mr Whiley points out that we lead the world in achievements across many fields such as agriculture, domestic, sport, the arts, medicine, transport and exploration.

“Did you know,” he enthuses, “that Australians were actually the first in the world to build a successful wheat harvesting machine, make a feature length movie film, build a refrigeration system, build the self-constructing tower crane, put wine in cardboard casks, explore both the Arctic and Antarctic by air, invent a portable pacemaker, manufacture and market the one-piece bathing suit, develop the wire-guided missile …”

He shows the Murmurs a long and rapidly growing list of Australian inventions that the museum is gathering, either for display in the flesh or to feature on display boards. 

Eighteen large items have already been collected, and Mr Whiley and the indefatigable museum volunteers are endeavouring to make them functional so that they will actually work in front of visitors at the press of a button.

One of the inventions, the G-Well bag loader, has a special connection with Millthorpe. It was invented by Cliff Bowd who was born in Millthorpe in 1892, grandson of original pioneers Edward and Esther Bowd. 

After he moved to Canowindra, Mr Bowd invented the bag loader, originally known as the Bowd Loader, in 1938 and sold the patent to Lachlan Steel in Cowra who then sold it to G-Well in Sydney, and the G-Well bag loader was born. 

It, and variations and improvements of it, have been in constant use to load bags of wheat, seed grains, hay, wool and even peanuts since the 1950s.

They were commonly known by all who used them as “kickers” and have been mechanically, pneumatically and hydraulically powered. They were used to load sewn bags of wheat, oats, potatoes, and all types of agricultural produce onto a truck. 

Mr Whiley says, “Almost all carriers’ trucks and many farm trucks in the late 1950s through the 1960s and into the 1970s were fitted with a G-Well bag loader.  

“Variations included a system to empty wheat bags into a bulk bin, another adaptation lifted bales of hay onto a truck, yet another was used to load 200kg bales of wool.”

Other inventions have Millthorpe connections, too, and the Murmurs will feature some of them in the lead-up to the opening of the new pavilion and remodelled museum late this year.

Swapping with the neighbours

A REMINDER that a swap meet will be held on Sunday, February 8 at Newbridge Show Ground. 

Gates will open at 6am. For information, call Jan on 6368 1185 or Sally on 6368 1018 or 0488 612 033.

Something for the Murmurs? 

Contact Laurie Williams at mm@goannagraphics.com or drop a note in at Galvanised, 17 Pym Street, Millthorpe.