{"id":8573,"date":"2021-04-21T09:58:33","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T13:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8573"},"modified":"2021-04-21T10:02:39","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T14:02:39","slug":"episode-319-australian-fire-recovery-and-our-search-for-the-sunshine-header-harvester-long-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8573","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 319; AUSTRALIAN FIRE RECOVERY ….AND OUR SEARCH FOR THE SUNSHINE HEADER HARVESTER LONG AGO"},"content":{"rendered":"

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EPISODE 319    AUSTRALIAN fire recovery  2021\u2026 AND the search for the Sunshine Header Harvester 1990<\/p>\n


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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
April 2021<\/div>\n

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THis Episode 319 is dedicated to David Skeoch who sent a note that brought<\/div>\n
back memories and also made us feel relieved that some parts of Australia are<\/div>\n
recovering from the fires.<\/div>\n

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UNUSUAL NAME LEADS TO AN INTERESTING TRAIL<\/div>\n


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Two years ago for no particular reason I wondered if there was  anyone on planet<\/div>\n
earth with the same name as mine?   Our surname is unusual\u2026not like Smith or Taylor or Newman\u2026so<\/div>\n
I just did a little digging prompted by a strange fact that some of my emails went astray.<\/div>\n

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Guess what?   i found two other Alan Skeoch\u2019s\u2026two  with my name and exact spelling of Alan.<\/div>\n
One was an American dentist who died.  But the other was  an Australian bush pilot \u2026 a young man.<\/div>\n
We communicated.   His father, David, and  I send notes back and forth regularly.  Strange world!<\/div>\n

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Today David sent this picture of his farm in a  heavily wooded  part of Australia\u2026New South Wales\u2026<\/div>\n
where the fires were quite  devastating.   Recovery is on its way.  He even speaks of many platypus<\/div>\n
creatures rebounding.   In these days of Covid 19 when all around seems dreary and  our self-isolation<\/div>\n
is harder and  harder to accept,  these pictures of Australia will be uplifting.  Enlarge picture to full<\/div>\n
screen.  Beautiful.<\/div>\n

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The Corang River, in which we have Macquarie Perch and lots of wildlife such as Platypus<\/font>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n


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Hi Alan,<\/div>\n
Feel free to send to whom you wish!  The location is Oallen NSW and it\u2019s the Corang River.  Hope to see you here one day!<\/div>\n
Kind regards <\/div>\n
David. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Note the spider\u2026How did that creature avoid death by fire?   The fires just got to the edge of David\u2019s wilderness property.  <\/div>\n

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OUR SEARCH FOR THE AUSTRALIAN HEADER HARVESTER, <\/div>\n

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David\u2019s note brings back memories of the time Marjorie, Andrew and I visited Australia in search of the famous Australian Header Harvester, an invention<\/div>\n
whose principles can  be traced back to the vast CARTHAGINIAN grain fields of North Africa in Roman times.  We drove into the Blue Mountains of New South Wales<\/div>\n
driving blind which is always an exciting way to make discoveries.  FOOUND the header harvester in a tiny village bar \u2026then An Australian farmer took us out in the<\/div>\n
 blackness of night over his fields and Eucalyptus<\/div>\n
groves just to show us a tiny stream where a platypus lived under a small farm bridge.  His truck had \u2018Roo bars\u2019\u2026I bet you do not know what that means.<\/div>\n

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Partial  success  when we did find the Header Harvester reproduced on a beer can graphic as well as the real thing placed for all to see in Sydney.  The Australians<\/div>\n
were wonderful once they knew we were interested.    Massey Harris of<\/div>\n
Canada bought the patents and made a modern model of the harvester.  <\/div>\n

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NOTE TO DAVID SKEOCH:  We never found a header harvester on an Australian farm.  Perhaps you have.  Is the image still on the beer cans?<\/div>\n

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Australian FARMER, Tom Bailey, bought an old Number 6, Sunshine header harvester for $300.  I bought the image on a couple of beer cans for $3 or so.<\/div>\n
Some readers might wonder why we flew all the way to Australia just to find the machine.  It was the beer that drew me<\/div>\n
and perhaps our youngest son Andrew but not Marjorie.<\/div>\n

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1935 Model of the Sunshine Header Harvester\u2026the ancient Carthaginian model had the same kind of clipping blades  as<\/div>\n
I seem to remember.<\/div>\n

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We visited Australia around 1990.   Sad to say I could not find the beer can in 2018 which does not mean it no longer exists.  Maybe David Skeoch can<\/div>\n
do a little research.  <\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
april 2021<\/div>\n

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Post Script:  The end result of our global wandering was a 300 page MA thesis titled  ‘Technology and Change in Agriculture from 1850 to 1891\u2019, University of<\/div>\n
Toronto,..It never made the best seller list.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 319    AUSTRALIAN fire recovery  2021\u2026 AND the search for the Sunshine Header Harvester 1990 alan skeoch April 2021 THis Episode 319 is dedicated to David Skeoch who sent a note that brought back memories and also made us feel relieved that some parts of Australia are recovering from the fires. UNUSUAL NAME LEADS […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}