Ploughs

The Two Furrowed Plough

Two Furrow Mouldboard Plough; Horse drawn 2 Furrow Mouldboard Plough made by Daniel Harvey of Box Hill. Unit was restored in 2010 by DTHS restoration team; Used: On orchards, possibly in the Doncaster district.; Made: Between 1910 and 1925; Cm: 60 x 180 x 75; Material: Steel; Acquisition: Gift; Condition: Fair; Condition Details: In 2010 unit was cleaned, made free of rust and painted by DTHS restoration team. It is now good for a static display.; Donor: Not recorded; Other info: This plough was donated perhaps 30 years ago or more, but never registered. Implement Shed, Exhibit No. 4. DJ-2085

Daniel Harvey produced a range of single, two and three furrow mouldboard ploughs between 1910 and 1925.

The two furrow plough displayed was horse drawn with the operator walking at the rear holding and steering the plough.

The photo below shows Daniel Harvey posing with a similar plough of the series.

Daniel Harvey with plough c1920. Daniel Harvey standing in front of a plough at his works in Whitehorse Road, Box Hill. The plough has three mould boards and was built to be drawn by a horse. DP1408




Early tractor-drawn two-furrow plough. Wikipedia

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Single Furrow Mouldboard Plough & Associated History

In the Implement Shed as part of our museum exhibits there is a Single Furrow Mouldboard Plough that was designed and built by Daniel Harvey in 1900 at his blacksmiths then located on Union Street, Lower Templestowe. This was Harvey’s first successful plough and marked the start of a very successful manufacturing business producing a wide range of machinery for use on orchards throughout Australia and New Zealand. A few years later Harvey moved his business to larger premises on Whitehorse Road, Box Hill where he employed many more skilled tradesmen. 

George Beattie Beavis working with the Single Furrow Mouldboard Plough

This first Single Furrow Mouldboard Plough was sold by Harvey in 1900 to Robert Edwin Petty and used on his peach orchard bounded by Doncaster and Church Roads, Doncaster opposite Holy Trinity Church. The plough was pulled by a horse with a man walking behind holding and guiding it. The photograph first published in the local newspaper in 1971 shows the late Beattie Beavis operating this Single Furrow Mouldboard Plough on his orchard in Doncaster. 

George Gregory (Beattie) Beavis was employed by Robert Edwin Petty from 1933 until 1941 where he used this plough. Beattie had attended Doncaster East State School from 1918 to 1927, and he enjoyed lessons in the Sloyd Room now located in the grounds of Schramm’s Cottage. After leaving school he worked on orchards and for the local council driving trucks.

Beattie Beavis ancestors came out from England on the sailing ship “Francis Ridley” arriving at Port Phillip on 12th February 1849. The family eventually purchased land in Elgar Road, Doncaster in 1852 where they started an orchard. Beattie’s father, Thomas and mother Theresa May Beavis (nee Buck), bought 18 acres of land in Carbine Street, Doncaster East and developed this as an orchard from 1904 where Beattie grew up and gained valuable experience of work on an orchard. 

Beattie Beavis joined the army and was posted to the No. 4 Reserve Motor Transport Section in Malaya arriving November 1941. His unit was soon transferred to Singapore only to be taken prisoner by the Japanese on 15th February 1942, resulting in his three and a half years of extreme suffering and hardship. Beattie spent 5 weeks in Changi jail before going to Burma to work long hours with little food in the extreme heat on the infamous Burma-Thailand railway. Upon completion of the railway Beattie was shipped to Japan on Christmas Eve 1944 only to experience the extreme cold and snow after working in the topical heat. As a P.O.W. Beattie worked in a coal mine at Nagasaki from 5.00am to 5.00pm each day or longer if his daily quota of 5 cubic metres of coal was not met. 

While wheeling coal out from the mine tunnel George “Beattie” Beavis working with the Single Furrow Mouldboard Plough Beattie saw the plane that dropped the Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki, from where he was working only seven miles from the point of explosion. He saw the flash and the mushroom cloud from the blast climb into the sky and felt the ground shake but had no idea what it was. With the war over in Japan POW’s were placed under American jurisdiction and Beattie underwent extensive medical examination for the effects of radiation and contamination. With his weight down to about 40 kg he returned to Australia and was discharged in January 1946. 

Beattie returned to the orchard and went into partnership with Robert Edwin Petty. He built a house and married Jean Petty the daughter of Robert in October 1948. The orchard property was sold for residential development in the late 1960’s. Beattie returned to work for the Council in the Parks & Gardens Section for three and a half years during which time he and Jean had acquired four acres of land in Park Orchards. They developed this into an orchard growing lemon trees. 

A few months after Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society was formed in 1967 Beattie and Jean joined and became active members for the next 20 years. After Schramm’s Cottage was relocated Beattie kindly donated the Single Furrow Mouldboard Plough to the Society in 1976 and restored many of the other orchard implements we now have on display. This Single Furrow Mouldboard Plough made by Daniel Harvey is not only a historic local orchard implement in our museum collection but is also a valuable link to world history. 

Source: John Boylett writing in 2018-03 DTHS Newsletter

 

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