Sunshine Harvester
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H. V. McKay CBE |
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| Born |
Hugh Victor McKay 21 August 1865 Drummartin, Victoria |
| Died | 21 May 1926 (aged 60) Sunbury, Victoria |
| Occupation | Australian inventor and industrialist |
| Known for | Sunshine Harvester |
H. V. (Hugh Victor) McKay CBE (21 August 1865 – 21 May 1926) was an Australian industrialist, known for inventing the Sunshine Harvester.
McKay was born the fifth child of a family of twelve near Drummartin, between Elmore and Raywood, Victoria. His parents were protestant immigrants from Monaghan, Ireland and arrived in Victoria in 1852. His father, Nathaniel McKay had been a stonemason and then a miner, before becoming a farmer around the end of 1845. Hugh attended Drummartin Primary School, and received some education from his father Nathaniel, before returning to the farm at 13. In 1883 he read about combine harvesters in California. With his brother John and his father he built a prototype stripper-harvester by January 1885 and patented the Sunshine Harvester on 24 March 1885, which revolutionised wheat harvesting and sold throughout the world. Although he lost a Victorian Government prize for the first working stripper-harvester to James Morrow in 1885, he successfully commercialised his invention, and had them built under contract in Melbourne and Bendigo. In 1888, he opened a working factory in Ballarat. In 1891 he married Sarah Irene Graves.
He later acquired the Braybrook Implement Works, and renamed it the Sunshine Harvester Works after his Sunshine Harvester. Subsequently in 1907, the residents of Braybrook Junction voted to rename the suburb Sunshine. The plant was expanded rapidly and at its peak employed nearly 3000 workers. It was the largest factory in Australia and as an example of entrepreneurship has probably not been surpassed in Australia.
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