A silver gelatin dry plate glass negative in landscape format.

Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

Sepia photograph of the Technological Museum and a cow in the foreground

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Sepia photograph of the Technological College and Museum in Broken Hill

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Black and white photograph of man walking through eucalyptus plantation

Expanding Stories

Evolution of the Castle Hill site from botanical research station to Museum Discovery Centre

Colour photograph of red corrugated iron building from a high vantage point

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Powerhouse Museum, Stage 2 exterior from high angle, city skyline in background

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Two 1950s women mowing grass
Blurred image from film with museum object number

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

Powerhouse Renewal

Artist Xin Liu floating with arm outstretched against a black background. She wears a full-length grey body suit with long sleeves with bare feet and hands.

Sydney Science Festival

Across Sydney10—17 Aug
Shadows cast by the Powerhouse Parramatta exoskeleton on concrete

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

A woman stands on stage in front of a large audience. She has her left hand raised in the air and a microphone in her right hand. The audience are holding their phones up recording the woman.

Blak Powerhouse

Powerhouse x We Are Warriors

Slider thumb2022
Two 1950s women mowing grass
Program

Victa – 70 years turning grass into lawns

Tag iconExhibition
when
Ended 16 Apr 2023
where
Castle Hill

See how the Victa lawnmower has developed over the past 70 years in this display that includes the original prototype, the first production model, the Golden Anniversary mower and more.

rotary metal motor mower, labelled with 'Victa'
1/4
Object No. K798
Victa lawnmower, first off the production line
two-stroke lawn mower with electronic starting features a green enamel lower body
lawn mower with combined mulcher and grass catcher in black and brown
mower consisting of a lightweight rectangular metal frame with a metal wheel at each corner

In 1952 Australia was at the start of a housing boom that created an unprecedented number of homeowners and renters with gardens and lawns to maintain. It was in this context that a backyard invention quickly grew into an Australian icon. From his garage in the Sydney suburb of Concord, Mervyn Victor Richardson, a former auto-engineer and car salesman, designed and built a rotary mower powered by a two-stroke engine for his son Garry to use in his lawnmowing business.

The innovation was lighter and easier to use than the heavy manual mowers popular at the time. Within two years the Victa Company had a factory in Western Sydney and had sold 20,000 mowers around the world. Victa has continuously innovated in response to changes in gardening trends, the economic cycle and more recently consumer concerns about the environment. Victa has been foreign owned since 2008 but its products are still mostly designed and manufactured in Australia.