Summary

The Pyramid Co-Operative Society's business premises on the north-east corner of the Kelly Street & Victoria Street intersection in Pyramid Hill, was situated on the site where H.V. McKay's elder brother John McKay had established the town's first general merchandising business in 1885. John McKay (1862-1936) had assisted his brother Hugh Victor McKay (1865-1926) in the construction of the first prototype McKay harvester on the family's farm at Drummartin, during the summer of 1884-85, and was a partner in the original harvester patents applied for by H.V. McKay during 1885. Subsequently, the pair established a business under the title McKay Bros., which between 1887 and 1889, marketed and sold approximately 140 of the McKay 'combined harvester', built under contract by a varierty of agricultural implement makers in Bendigo, Ballarat and Melbourne. The McKay harvester later evolved into the first 'Sunshine' harvesters, produced at Ballarat during the latter half of 1894, which established the foundation of H.V. McKay's subsequent manufacturing enterprise. John McKay operated one of the earliest Sunshine harvester agencies from his Pyramid Hill store, conducting the business until selling the premises to the Pyramid Co-operative Society Ltd in 1919.

Description of Content

View from north of the Pyramid Co-Operative Society Ltd's emporium store at Pyramid Hill, Victoria, incorporating an agency for farm equipment produced by H.V. McKay Massey Harris Pty Ltd, at the Sunshine Harvester Works. Showing the premises as rebuilt in 1933 to the designs of the architects & engineers, Messrs. A.C. Leith & S.W. Thurston, in a 'Florentine' or 'Spanish Mission' style with arched colannaded verandah and clock tower, following a disastrous fire that destroyed the previous premises in December 1932. The building today (as of 2022) operates as an IGA supermarket.

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