Summary

All-terrain independent four-wheel-drive Williames 'Wildcat' tractor, built by G.A.W. Design & Construction Pty Ltd, Warragul, Gippsland, Victoria, in 1973.

Geoffrey A. Williames developed his innovative 'Wildcat' tractor design during the early 1970s to provide a four-wheel drive power unit with a low centre of gravity that would be safer to operate in steep hill country. A prototype was tested in 1971, with the production version subsequently being built by G.A.W. Design & Construction Pty Ltd at Warragul in Gippsland, Victoria. The first 20 Wildcats were fitted with Sachs-Wankel rotary engines, with later units being fitted with a 30 horsepower V4 Wisconsin petrol engine.

The Wildcat was the first Australian production tractor design to use front-mounted equipment which included a blade, slasher, rotary hoe and tiller.

180 Wildcats were manufactured before the company ceased trading.

Williames formed a new company called Williames Hi-Tech International in 1975 to make specialised machinery for high-value crops. Production of an improved Supercat version continued. The Wildcat design was also developed by Toft Bros Industries Ltd in Bundaberg, Queensland as the R1000 fitted with a VM air-cooled diesel engine. Twenty R1000 units were built from 1975 to 1981. The Austrak RT-45 was also developed from the Wildcat design and was built in Melbourne by Australian Tractor Industries Pty Ltd (Later Austrak Industries Pty Ltd) between 1978 and 1986.

This example of the Wildcat tractor was donated to the Museum in 1978 by its designer, Geoffrey Williames. It is powered by a Sachs-Wankel rotary engine.

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