Australia has contributed more than its fair share of inventions to the world. This might be due to our pioneering heritage since the first settlers needed to be resourceful and creative in coming up with alternatives to many manufactured goods that were simply not available. Visit any pioneer homestead and one of the first things you will notice is the recycling of virtually everything, even using kerosene tins as drawers in furniture. Repairs were conducted with the same ingenuity, using anything that came to hand, including fencing wire and baling twine because replacement goods were either too expensive or just not available. The Australian... (more...)
Bennetts Boots – Wide Calf Boots
Often innovation comes though recognising a need that is not being met and adapting an existing product or service to meet that need. Such was the case with Amanda Bennetts who was frustrated by the lack of boots to accommodate ladies with a wider calf. Amanda had a passion for boots going back to her high school days and it was after a frustrating shopping expedition with her partner (now fiancé) to more than twenty shops that she came up with the idea of getting boots made. With the help of her partner Matthew and good friend Cansion, Bennetts boots – Wide Calf Boots was launched. What makes Bennetts boots special is the recognition... (more...)
Colour Changing Baby Bottles
‘Milk & Tickles’ is the brand name of an innovative Australian designed baby bottle that changes colour when heated. Normally baby boy blue, once it is exposed to heat of 35C (102F) the places where the heat meets the plastic change to baby girl pink. The invention of a Queensland company, Sun Card Pty Ltd, the ‘Milk And Tickles’ bottle has been around since 1997. The secret is the type of plastic used to make the bottle. This plastic reacts to heat, handprints or heated formula will cause the reaction. This can be merely amusement for the baby or it can give a warning that there is hot liquid in the bottle and give... (more...)
The Sunshine Harvester
The Sunshine Harvester was a major improvement of the Wheat stripper because it included the winnowing. In 1883, Hugh Victor McKay, a 17 year old, tired of turning the heavy handle on his fathers’ winnowing machine in country Victoria, wondered if a harvester could be made to winnow as well. With the help of his brothers George and John, he built a prototype made of old metal scraps and farm tools. It was finished in 1884 and called the Sunshine Harvester. It was an immediate success because it separated the grain, straw and chaff using a rotary fan making the entire harvesting process automatic. He soon established a factory and was selling... (more...)
Aussie Chopsticks
The Aussie Chopsticks were invented for people who had difficulty using real chopsticks. The Aussie chopstick is a successful invention by Bill Allardyce. The story goes that one day, Bill was fiddling with a bent piece of wire and had the idea of joining two chopsticks together. Realizing how easy it was to manipulate the bent wire he thought that if he could use chopsticks in a similar way, it would prevent food from spilling onto the table and floor. Satisfied his idea was marketable he decided to make a prototype. After several weeks he created the model which was basically two chopsticks connected by a bent piece of plastic and some car... (more...)
Triton Work Centre
The Triton Workcentre Has Helped Generations Of Tradesmen And Amateur Carpenters With Their Work. Like many amateur carpenters, George Lewin found it impossible to cut a straight line through timber with a hand saw or even an electric saw. in 1975 he gave up trying to make a table saw, instead he set out to invent a simple bench that would guide the saw and hold timber still. Once Lewin had the bench right he demonstrated it on a tv program. It was an immediate success with hundreds of Australians clamouring to buy one. In 1976 he started to manufacture Triton Workcentres. George Lewin understood the problems of the amateur woodworker who wanted... (more...)
Winged Keel
The Winged Keel Was A Revolutionary Design Ben Lexcen was an Australian yacht designer who longed to build a a world beating 12 meter racing yacht to win the America’s Cup with. In the 1980s he spent several months in Holland at a ship testing laboratory where he was experimenting with a new idea; a keel with wings that flew though the water. Lexcen found that yachts could turn much faster and sail a little closer to the wind with his winged keel. It was built into his new yacht ‘Australia II’ and kept a very closely guarded secret. In 1983 Australia II became the first non-American boat in 132 years to win the America’s... (more...)
Wine Cask
A More Convenient And Economical Way To Store Wine Wine is an alcoholic beverage that has been popular in many cultures for centuries. Wine goes ‘bad’ when exposed to air and so many methods have been used to try to prevent air exposure including; storing in glass bottles, wooden barrels, stone jugs and even animal skins. In 1965 Thomas Angove of Angove’s Winemakers and Distillers, of Renmark in South Australia, invented a cask with a resealable plastic spout but stopped marketing it in 1971 due to unreliability. In 1972 another Australian wine company called Penfolds improved on the design by adding a tap and placing the... (more...)
Wave Piercing Catamaran
The Wave Piercing Catamaran Was Designed To Do What Regular Catamarans Can’t: Pierce The Waves With Its Hulls. A catamaran is a boat with two hulls, side by side. Catamarans are very stable and two slim hulls can support a wide deck with many passengers. However, in rough seas catamarans can be bumpy and tend to broach, or turn side on. The wave-piercing catamaran is an Australian design, invented in 1984 by Philip Hercus of the Incat company. Wave-piercer hulls flow smoothly through waves instead of bouncing over them. Incat has built wave-piercer ferries that are in service around the world, as well as military variants for several navies.... (more...)
Victor Rotary Bladed Lawnmower
This Invention Is Now Used On Lawns Around The World In 1952, Mervyn Victor Richardson, a New south Wales engineering salesman, built a simple petrol driven lawn mower with spinning blades. Richardson’s mower, which he named Victa, was light, powerful and easy to use. The rotary action of the blades meant the motorized mower could cut far larger lawns than the conventional push-pull system then in use. A Victa mower back then cost about 40 pounds at a time when most Australians earned about 30 pounds a week. Yet, so many people bought so many Victa lawnmowers that Richardson quit his job and worked full time to make mowers. By 1955 Richardson... (more...)
