More Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp machines

In the last post we looked at the Lubecker Steam bucket dredge that worked on the Koo-Wee- Rup Swamp, in this post we will look at other machines. But first - here is a short history of the drainage of the Swamp.  In 1875, landowners on the Swamp formed the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp Drainage Committee. From 1876 this Committee employed over 100 men and created drains that would carry the water from the Cardinia and Toomuc Creeks to Western Port Bay at Moody’s Inlet. Around the time of the First World War another drain was created to tap the Deep Creek into the Toomuc Drain.  

The Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, William Thwaites, surveyed the Swamp in 1887 and his report recommended the construction of the Main Drain from where the Bunyip River entered the Swamp in the north to Western Port Bay and a number of smaller side drains.  A tender was advertised in 1889. In spite of strikes, floods and bad weather by March, 1893, the private contractors had constructed the 16 miles of the drain from the Bay to the south of Bunyip. 

Additional drains were added over the years and existing drains were widened and deepened. After the huge 1934 flood that saw the entire Swamp  inundated there was a Royal Commission into the role of the operation of the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission (SRWSC). As a result they worked on new drainage plans for the Swamp which included the construction of the Yallock outfall drain from Cora Lynn, cutting across to Bayles and then essentially following the line of the existing Yallock Creek to Western Port Bay. The aim was to take any flood water directly to the sea so the Main Drain could cope with the remaining water. The Yallock outfall drain was started in 1939 but the works were put on hold during World War 2 and not completed until 1956-57. 

These are SRWSC photographs and show some of the machines that worked on the Swamp in the 1930s and 1940s.

 Deep Creek outfall, No. 15 Dredge. Taken December 1936.

 Sand dredge, Main Drain. December 1936.

 No. 36 excavator, Yallock outfall drain. April 1940.

McGrath's sand dredge, Cardinia Creek. November 1940.

Harmon Excavator working on the Yallock Outfall drain. July 1941.

Yallock Outfall works. December 1947

 Yallock Outfall works. February 1948.

 Yallock Out fall works. Cletrac tractor. February 1948.

No 67 Excavator, remodelling the Little Yannathan Drain. December 1948.

To read about the Lubecker Steam bucket dredge, click here.

Emerson Brantingham Big 4 tractor

We saw this tractor at the Tractor Pull at Longford, near Sale, in March this year. It is a Big 4, which was originally owned by East Bland Station at Quandialla, near West Wyalong, in N.S.W and restored by Norm Johnston. Big 4 tractors were the first tractors built with a four cylinder overhead valve and the prototype was created by D.M Hartsough in 1904. Previous to this, early American tractors with internal combustion engines were one or two cylinders. This four cylinder model proved popular with Canadian farmers, who had vast acres to clear and cultivate and for this reason also had some sales in South Africa and Australia. The Big 4 was manufactured by the Transit Thresher Company of Minneapolis from 1906. This company was later taken over by the Emerson Brantingham Implement Company, who manufactured these tractors until 1916.
The Big 4 weighed 17,500 pounds or nearly 8 tons and Emerson Brantingham introduced a six cylinder version in 1913, which only lasted until 1915 as it was too big and cumbersome. It weighed 23,000 lbs, over 10 tons. The Emerson Brantingham Company had its beginnings in 1852 when Ralph Emerson became a major shareholder in John. H. Manny, a harvesting equipment manufacturer. In 1853 the Manny Company changed its name to Emerson Manufacturing Company. In 1909 Emerson joined with Charles Brantingham to crate Emerson Brantingham Implement Company. They took over a number of Traction Engine companies such as the Geiser Manufacturing Company in 1912, the builder of the Peerless Traction Engine. Around the same time they also took over Reeves Company of Columbus, Indiana. J.I Case (Case Tractors) purchased Emerson Brantingham in 1928

There is a truck connection in this story. Emerson Brantingham closed down the Reeves plant in 1925 and part of it (the Assembly building) was sold to Will G. Irwin, a wealthy industrialist and philanthropist, the backer of the Cummins Engine Company, which was started in 1919 by Clessie Cummins. In late 1925 or early 1926 Cummins moved its main production into this building. Cummins still have their head quarters in Columbus, Indiana and are a major supplier of truck engines.

I got this information from the Magic of old tractors by Ian M. Johnston (New Holland Publishers, 2004) and Encyclopedia of American Steam Traction Engines by Jack Norbeck (Crestline Publishing, 1976)