Fairey Battle Bomber plane

"International Harvester played an important part during World War II. In addition to building many parts essential for war, they were also a base for the fairy battle bomber airplanes. In the above photo you can see the white buildings of the army barracks protecting the airfield with planes ready for takeoff.  (1940)"

Early in 1940, Geelong received its first military contract. The Commonwealth Government had exercised its right to utilize the services of the plant and its work force. Geelong Works became a large contributor to the war effort, manufacturing guns, tanks, shells, aircraft and other war equipment. Geelong Works still continued to produce certain lines of farm equipment to help feed the thousands of soldiers overseas.  Engineers at the works were able to develop equipment for large scale vegetable production during the war. As a result, many new lines of vegetable equipment were available in Australia.

 - excerpt from International Harvester in Australia : Geelong Works - book by SJ Galloway

Australia's Beginnings in Agriculture

Following is the beginning of the IH story in Australia. This article came from International Harvester in Australia, March 1955, it is a great start to understand the IH story in Australia. 

Australia’s development began in 1788 when Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in New South Wales. One of his first acts on landing as Sydney Cove was to issue orders that land be prepared for the growing of food. This was the beginning of Australia’s agriculture.

In the years prior to 1831 in the USA—the year in which Cyrus Hall McCormick invented the first practical reaper—it was necessary for nineteen men to work on the land in order to produce enough food to feed one man in the city. Similar conditions existed in Australia. Were it not for the inventive genius of man and the creation of efficient farm equipment, the present rate of development both of this and other great countries would not have been possible.

High on the list of Australia’s great pioneers are those who have contributed to the growth of agriculture. Noteworthy is the South Australian, John Ridley who invented a stripper which, although a crude device, stripped the heads of wheat from the standing crop by means of a horizontal comb.  Ridley’s stripper, developed in 1843, enabled the labour costs for harvesting to be reduced from 3/- per bushel to just over 3d. per bushel. HV McKay was another great pioneer who, in 1884, further developed the stripper principle to create a machine that would take the heads from the standing crop, then thresh, winnow, and clean the grain in one operation.

Other important Australian agricultural developments included the invention of the stump-jump plough by RB Smith in 1876 and the introduction of irrigation. Men like William Farrar experimented with and produced, drought resistant strains of wheat suitable to Australian conditions; these strains enabled low rainfall areas to become productive, and added millions of pounds to Australia’s income.

During the early years of Australia’s development the predecessors of International Harvester made a considerable contribution to this country’s agriculture. In 1877, a quantity of wire-tying grain binders was shipped to Australia and for many years these machines and later the twine-tying grain binders became a common part of the Australian rural scene. Early machines introduced by International Harvester to Australia included steam engines, threshers, seed drills, garden implements, disc and mouldboard ploughs and cream separators. The first harvester was marketed in 1905 and was displaced in 1915 by the harvester thresher. This was the forerunner of the modern header harvester, now built at Geelong works, a product which has been acclaimed by farmers all over Australia.

Perhaps the greatest IH contribution to agricultural growth in Australia was the early farm tractors which were introduced soon after the turn of the twentieth century. While these tractors were heavy and cumbersome they were the foundation of power farming as we know today. International Harvester was quick to develop more efficient tractors with a higher proportion of power-output-to-weight. These quickly gained wide acceptance and soon began to replace horses on the farm.

While International Harvester’s first farm tractor appeared in 1906, one of the biggest steps in the USA was the development in 1923 of the first all-purpose Farmall tractor. This was a new conception of the tractor as a power unit, utilizing less expensive but more efficient direct-connected implements.

Another achievement accredited to Harvester engineers was the Farmall System of Farming – the original “system of farming” which enabled the farmer to operate a complete line of matched equipment for every phase of farming. System farming has now been developed to a stage were there is a complete system of implements for all types of farming. Early in the field of road transport development, International Harvester produced its first production-line motor trucks in Akron, Ohio, USA, in 1907 after nearly ten years of research and experimenting. Known as the Auto Buggy and Auto Waggon, these early International trucks were imported to Australia and were the fore runners of the world-renowned International trucks of today. At first they were regarded with suspicion, however, when their possibilities were visualised, they quickly gained common acceptance and wide use.

In 1902 the McCormick, the Deering, and other farm implement machine companies, merged in the United States to form the International Harvester Company of America, which continued to operate with separate representatives in Australia until 1904, when the International Harvester Company of America opened for business. In July 1912 International Harvester Company of Australia Pty. Ltd. Was formed to carry on in Australia the business formerly conducted by International Harvester Company of America and its predecessors.

The history of the Australian company is one of steady progress disturbed only by the depression of the early 1930s. During a period of widespread tariff restrictions on imports, plans were made for the manufacture of Harvester products in Australia. Geelong Works was established in 1938; but production was interrupted by World War II; and the company switched its facilities to the manufacture of materials vital to the allied effort in the South Pacific. Included in this were large quantities of vegetable growing equipment.

Since the war an ever-increasing range of farm machines for all major agricultural activities has been designed, developed and produced. Tractor manufacture commenced at Geelong Works in 1947 and thousands of Australian-built tractors today serve agriculture and industry throughout the South Pacific. Eleven models are now being produced ranging from the AOS-6 Standard Tractor to the Super AWD-6 Diesel Tractor.

While for many years the imported International trucks which were sold in Australia included some Australian-made content, it was not until 1950 that truck manufacture began in Australia. Today the company’s Dandenong Works manufactures eight basic models ranging from a 12-15cwt. Utility to a 5-6 ton medium-heavy-duty model.

International Harvester’s long association with Australia has stood the test of time. Today the company, whose policy is founded on a spirit of pioneering tradition, is putting its “shoulder to the wheel” with the determination to help Australia complete her gigantic development programs so that she will one day be one of the really great nations of the world.