From:Golden Memories Millthorpe Museum

Name/Title'Wheeo' Screw Down Wool Press

About this objectThis screw down wool press with original paintwork and working parts is of uncertain origin. Attributed to Healy and Lawson of England, the press bears the stamp ‘Wilding & Co. Agricultural Engineers,
Melbourne’ within the lower box. It is probable that the press was in fact originally English (dating to the 1840s) and was adapted by Wilding & Co. during the 1870s. The press was used during the nineteenth century by the Shepherd family on their ‘Wheeo’ property near Crookwell, where around 20,000 sheep were shorn annually.

This wool press used a steel screw and gearing mechanism with a large flywheel and rope, thus enabling the machine to be operated from the ground by hand. The flywheel was modified at GMM by the addition of two small brackets that constrain the rope, thus enabling the wheel to be turned more effectively. A travelling box saved time during pressing, enabling an operator to sew the bale in the lower box concurrently with a second operator loading the upper box. The door opening mechanism
employs three claws joined by a vertical rod and held in place by a compound lever. This mechanism appears consistent both with an ambiguous illustration in the Australasian from 1872 (Walsh 1993:
105) and with the description given in the patent issued to Joseph Wilding and John Hammond Robinson in 1875 for ‘Improvements in catches for fastening the doors of wool presses’ (Patents Victoria 2001).

Travelling box technology was patented in 1866 by J.W. Home & Co. of Melbourne, exhibited in 1866-67 at the Melbourne Exhibition and won a prize at the 1869 New South Wales Agricultural Society’s Sydney Show. Home’s business was bought by Joseph Wilding & Co. in 1870, who subsequently advertised that they would convert older model screw presses to the new travelling box design (Walsh 1993: 104) and later added a double speed gearing mechanism and patented an improved wool press catch. The presence of the Wilding & Co. stamp within the lower box indicates that this press is probably an older screw press converted to the new travelling box design.

The virtually indistinct handwritten inscriptions on the travelling box of the Wheeo press are tantalising in their ambiguity. Names of otherwise unknown individuals such as Robert Lewis, J.J. Smith (?) and
A. Henderson (?) - presumably pressers - and inaccurate arithmetic provide a brief glimpse into the human side to this wool press’s working life. Equally interesting is the evidence for the scrubbing that
almost obliterated these names, indicating that attempts were made to remove the graffiti. Whilst the date of the graffiti removal is unknown, it is likely that the press was scrubbed prior to its decommissioning as the arithmetic post-dates the scrub marks. It is possible that previous pressers had left their mark on the machine, to the dissatisfaction of their employers who may well have endeavoured to clean their vandalised plant.

This wool press derives historical significance from its association with some of the earliest settlers in the Crookwell district, the Shepherds, the role it played in their successful pastoral operation at ‘Wheeo’, and from the handwritten inscriptions on the travelling box. The item is artistically /
aesthetically significant as an example of evolving nineteenth century wool technology. To a certain extent the modifications to the flywheel detract from the interpretive value of the press, as they give
an unrealistic impression of the capabilities of the flywheel mechanism. Nevertheless, the fact that the press remains serviceable and capable of demonstrating the screw down press mechanism lends the
item high interpretive significance. Donated by the Shepherd family, the wool press was certainly in use on their property during the 1870s, however its earlier provenance is uncertain. A composite of an
earlier press with the later Wilding & Co. travelling box system and in excellent condition, this press is significant in its rarity.
Kim Tuovinen 2010

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved