Summary

Photograph depicting the field trial of agricultural equipment manufactured by H.V. McKay Massey Harris Pty Ltd, of Sunshine, on the property of Anton George Sudholz, near Natimuk. The H.V. McKay enterprise had a long association with the Sudholz family, which dated back to the early 1890s, when an uncle Friedrich Wilhelm Sudholz, was one of a handful of Wimmera investors who bailed out the original McKay Harvesting Machinery Co. after it was forced into liquidation in 1893. Over the decades many new McKay products were tested on the farms of various members of the extended Sudholz family around Horsham and Natimuk.

Anton George Sudholz was born at Natimuk in 1878, being one of a large family of nine sons and a daughter of the German-born settlers Heinrich and Minna Sudholz, who had originally emigrated to South Australia, before becoming pioneer farmers in the Wimmera. Anton followed his father and brothers into farming pursuits, at first working on his own account at Mitre, before purchasing the 'Mount View' property of the late Henry McClure at Mount Arapiles in 1908, which he remained connected with until his death in April 1948. He married Augusta Martha Hedwig Groks at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Natimuk, in 1904, and the couple had five daughters and three sons, many of whom remained in the Natimuk district.

Description of Content

A 10-horse abreast team pulling a Sunshine 18-row 'Suntyne' seed drill in muddy conditions on the farm of A.G. Sudholz at Natimuk. (Note: The disc scrapers fitted either side for cleaning the mud from the wheels.).

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