East Brothers Elevator

From Now and Then Wiki

Fast Facts
Type of thing	Farming
Date made or found	1950s
Place made	Mallala
Place used	Farrelly Road, Mallala, Hundred of Grace
Current location	Mallala Museum
Used in	Loading grain bags and hay bales
Ceased use	1970s

In the mid 1950s, A.A. Griffiths and son J.C. Griffiths of 'Pine Grove' Mallala purchased an All Purpose Elevator from East Bros manufacturing company of Mallala South Australia.

The elevator was used on their farm for three functions:

Loading bagged grain from the paddock onto a truck
Shifting bulk grain from the truck bin to the farm storage silos
Loading small bales of hay from the paddock to truck and/or from truck to haystack

The elevator worked efficiently but was heavy and cumbersome to manipulate.

After the introduction of bulk grain facilities at Mallala in 1957 the elevator continued to be used at times on the farm, moving bagged oats for storage or sale and shifting seed grain into the mouseproof barn to store for the following year.

The elevator continued to be used infrequently on the farm as a hay elevator until J.C. and son A.J. Griffiths made the transition into making large round bales of hay and the production of small bales as a large scale operation was gradually phased out.

The East Bros Elevator is displayed at the Mallala Museum.