The horse-powered winnower changed the course of Australian history.
Following years of research, there are two pioneering agricultural machines which are responsible for the Colonies to take the long road to Federation.
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The 1880s horse-drawn stripper and winnower are found in other museums, such as Junee and Jindera. However, they do not have the close association with the public momentum which resisted colonial authority and border customs duties. They changed the course of Australian history.
During the 1870s and 1880s, land selectors, mainly from Melbourne and Ballarat, followed the railway construction up to St James, via Benalla, in 1883.
Wagon loads of wheat from the southern Riverina, heading for the Mulwala Yarrawonga Bridge and the dreaded Customs House.
The railway finally reached Yarrawonga in 1886, a thriving town on the Murray River, the colonial border. This expansion of selectors and settlements opened the way for selectors to move across the river to the southern Riverina of NSW, especially when the 1891 wooden traffic bridge was opened between Yarrawonga and Mulwala.
Loads of wheat were halted at the Customs House, where tax was calculated and the invoice reluctantly accepted. The Customs House was moved to its present site in 1992.
The 1890s saw a widespread depression, which forced a re-think in both towns. They had been working together as one community to achieve the railway and the bridge. Now they needed to pull together to overcome the depression.
At this time, great changes in the methods of harvesting cereals had occurred.
Gone were the scythes and sickles; in came the horse-drawn stripper and winnower. This South Australian invention led the world in harvesting grain, and continued to do so until the mid-1920s, with more Australian inventions such as the harvester and header.
Share farming originated in Australia on Tarramia Station, east of Mulwala, in 1889. Then called ‘halves men’, other sheep stations in the southern Riverina followed suit, such as Boomanoomana, Mulwala, Collendina.
Wheat was stacked high at Yarrawonga’s railway platform, ready for transport to Melbourne. A horse would pull up one bag at a time.
It suited the sheep stations to diversify into producing cereals, as wool had taken a downturn during the depression. So Victorian selectors moved across the river to take the role of ‘halves men’, to add to their livelihoods on their small Victorian land holdings.
1892 was a bumper year for cereals. The Victorian share farmers took their wagons loaded with 4-bushel bags of wheat across the new wooden bridge.
However, they had to pass the Victorian Customs House at the southern end of the bridge where they were taxed with ever-increasing customs duty on every bag of wheat.
It was not long until they were vocal in their objections. “We are Victorians, our families live south of Yarrawonga, we should not have to pay a Victorian Tax.”
Harvesters posed briefly for the camera on Mulwala Station.
Their new machines had opened up areas in the southern Riverina to cereal production, but they were thwarted by the dreaded taxes at the border. The local communities began to form Federation Leagues. “We are one nation. Abolish the Colonies.”
The loudest cries came from Berrigan, Mulwala, Yarrawonga and Savernake. The momentum to act grew stronger, Berrigan being at the forefront to establish Federation Leagues along this stretch of the Murray and proposed to convene a conference about the possibility of Federation.
Berrigan’s decision was to select Corowa as the best location, as it offered more accommodation than other towns, and also had both Victorian and NSW railway lines. The successful conference of August 1893 drew attendees from many areas, including Melbourne and Sydney.
Four-bushel bag trolley in the Pioneer Museum.
It was the Yarrawonga Customs House which was the catalyst for Federation, due to the imposition of taxes upon the grain harvests that were reaped by the new Australian inventions.
Information on this era is drawn from primary source documents, including the Sloane Archives, which are classified by the Victorian Department of Housing and Construction as ‘Nationally Significant’, being one of the most complete and valuable documentary collections held in Australia.
Horse-drawn stripper harvester, in the Pioneer Museum.
The actual harvesting equipment responsible for the momentum towards Federation is on display in Mulwala’s Pioneer Museum.
However, in February 2025, this building was ‘condemned’ as unsafe by Federation Council administration, a status which is questioned by many local residents and the members of the Yarrawonga Mulwala Historical Society Inc.
In 1992, the building had been classed as ‘unsafe’, but the Historical Society was permitted to establish the Museum exhibits.
If Federation Council plans to demolish the Museum, this would entail the dispersal of more than 7,000 items, including these most significant machines. They would be lost to our district.
What is now needed is the spirit of justice and commonsense, which our forebears had in the 1890s.
Applications for World Heritage Listing are under way for these machines, beginning with the horse-drawn stripper and winnower. This will include information on Australia’s crucial role in large-scale cereal production, and the role that they played in the federation of the Australian Colonies, leading the world in header designs for more than 80 years.
A hand-operated winnower, in the Pioneer Museum.
The Pioneer Museum also houses items of NSW Heritage Listing, as well as others on the National Estate Register.
The Museum must never be demolished.
It is a treasure trove of Australian History, which generations of Australians and overseas visitors will appreciate; especially the horse-drawn stripper and winnower, which changed global food production and Australian governance.
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