Summary

Black & white photograph of Alan Walter Henderson driving a Massey-Harris 744 Diesel Tractor and 'Sunshine' No.4 Power-Drive (PTO-Drive) Header Harvester in a 'Magnet' variety wheat crop yielding 36 bushels to the acre. Alan was working in a farming partnership with his father and older brother as C.W. Henderson & Sons, near Shepparton in the Goulburn Valley. The new harvester and tractor were at the time under trial or recently purchased from the local Sunshine Massey Harris dealership.

The Sunshine No.4 Power-Drive Header was a combine harvester, based on the famous Headlie Shipard Taylor design, produced at the Sunshine Harvester Works in Victoria, between 1946 and 1955. It was designed specifically for tractor operation with the mechanism of the cutting & gathering head, threshing drum, winnower, straw walkers, elevators and conveyors driven directly from the power-take-off shaft of the tractor. It was typically used for harvesting cereal crops such as wheat, oats and barley, and was offered in two sizes with either a 10-ft or 12-ft wide cutting head and the options of a bagging platform or 30 bushel bulk grain box (hopper), as shown in this photograph. The adoption of a large grain box reflects the transition from bagged to bulk grain handling, introduced by the Grain Elevators Board of Victoria during WWII. The Sunshine No.4 Header was also offered in an Engine-Functioned version, with a dedicated onboard petrol engine replacing the function of the PTO drive, enabling operation by smaller capacity tractors. In the last years of production it was also offered with the option of a larger 36 bushel grain bin.

The Massey-Harris 744 model tractor was a British-built version of the North American designed Massey-Harris 44 tractor. It was produced at factories in Manchester, England, and Kilmarnock, Scotland, between 1948 and 1953. It was a two-wheel-drive medium-sized agricultural tractor powered by the 4.7 litre 6-cylinder Perkins P6 diesel engine, developing 46 horsepower (34.3 kW). In Australia, it was imported by H.V. McKay Massey Harris Pty Ltd, and sold through Sunshine Massey Harris agents.

This image is part of a large assemblage of photographs, negatives, moving film, artefacts, documents and trade literature constituting the H.V. McKay Sunshine Collection. The collection relates to the design, manufacture, field-testing and marketing of agricultural equipment produced and imported by the Sunshine Harvester Works. Originally founded by Hugh V. McKay at Ballarat in the 1890s, the business relocated to Braybrook (later renamed Sunshine) on Melbourne's western outskirts, in 1905-1907. In 1930, the firm merged with the Australasian operations of the Canadian firm Massey Harris, becoming H.V. McKay Massey Harris Pty Ltd. In 1953, Massey Harris merged its North American and European operations with the British tractor and implement manufacturer Harry Ferguson, later emerging under the name Massey-Ferguson in 1958.

Description of Content

A Sunshine Massey-Harris 744 Diesel Tractor with a Sunshine No.4 Power-Drive Header Harvester in a bumper crop of 'Magnet' wheat stretching across a flat, wide open plain. The Broken River runs through the tree line on the horizon in the background. (Note: The tractor is fitted with both fore and aft lights for night-work.) The photograph depicts Alan Walter Henderson driving the tractor, and is believed to have been taken on his property at Pine Lodge beside the Pine Lodge Cemetery, located 16 kilometres east of Shepparton, adjacent to the Midland Highway, on the route from Shepparton to Benalla.

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