Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Expanding Stories

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

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Victa – 70 years turning grass into lawns

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

Powerhouse Renewal

A transformative renewal program across four sites

We Rise

Blak Powerhouse

Powerhouse-1 Mission Launch to the ISS

An initiative of the Powerhouse: Future Space program

2024

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

Neilson Foundation

Leadership Circle – Powerhouse Parramatta

2022

Program

Victa – 70 years turning grass into lawns

Name: Victa – 70 years turning grass into lawns
Start: 2022-10-06T23:00:00.000Z
End: 2023-04-16T07:00:00.000Z
Location: Castle Hill

Exhibition

Ended 16 Apr 2023

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
Victa lawnmower, first off the production line
Object No. K798

two-stroke lawn mower with electronic starting features a green enamel lower body — 2/4
Four millionth Victa 'Mustang' lawn mower
Object No.K799

lawn mower with combined mulcher and grass catcher in black and brown — 3/4
Victa VSX 160 lawnmower
Object No. 2003/157/1

mower consisting of a lightweight rectangular metal frame with a metal wheel at each corner — 4/4
Victa 'peach tin' prototype rotary lawn mower
Object No. 97/5/1

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.