Mervan Victor Richardson produced the first Victa lawn mower in his garage at Concord, a suburb of Sydney, in 1952. Richardson named this mower the Victa "18" Rotmomo

Victa Mowers Pty Ltd was formed in 1953 and opened for business with a staff of 6 producing 60 mowers a week from an old shed at the rear of a Mortlake church.. In 1955 Victa moved to bigger premises at Silverwater with office at 47-51 Parramatta Road Concord. The revolutionary design of the mower and Victa's extensive use of the print media, and later television, for advertising saw the company grow so quickly that by 1958, it produced its 250000th lawn mower it and had to move to new premises at Milperra. Branches had already opened in Melbourne and Brisbane and more were opened in Adelaide and Perth. With its continued growth Victa expanded into new fields including plastics in 1958, housing, Aviation and factory buildings in 1960, and red phones in 1963. In 1961 Victa opened its first overseas office in London. Thirteen years after its beginnings Victa produced its millionth mower and it was only another 6 years, in 1972, that Victa rolled out its two millionth mower.

In 1970 Victa became a division of the Sunbeam Corporation and began manufacturing the Sunbeam mower. Victa's takeover coincided with the release of the VC 160, the first rotary mower designed to catch wet grass with out clogging. By the mid 1970s Victa had moved into ride on mowers, lawn tractors, garden gear products, tillers and shredders.

In November 1981 Sunbeam Corporation and Victa joined Allegheny International and Victa was appointed Australian distributorship for Ransomes Turf Equipment. In 1984 the manufacturing plant of Victa was moved from Milperra to Campsie.

Following 17 years of being a foreign owned company Victa in 1987 was acquired by the Reil Corporation. However in November the following year six Sunbeam Victa Directors effected the largest management buy out in Australian history at that time and purchased Sunbeam Victa. Not long after this Victa produced its 5 millionth lawn mower with export markets extending to South America, China, Germany, Sweden and the Gulf region.

Archive, manufacturing industry, Victa Pty Ltd, Australia, 1953-1992

Records of motor mower manufacturers Victa Pty Ltd, including product leaflets, 1955-1984, operating instruction booklets, 1960-1967, spare parts lists and manuals, 1962-1987, servicing guides, c1970, service manuals for Sunbeam mowers, 1968, 1973, price lists, 1962-1968, 1970-1977, agency and dealer booklets, 1957-1968, booklet, 'Safety rules for Victa employees', 1969, booklet, 'Victa - a factory of a million pieces', c1967, phonograph records, 1966-1974, files - Victa Vortex release, 1983, Victa newscuttings, 1956-1987, magazine 'Victa People', Nov. 1969, photographs and slides, 1950s-1992, scrapbooks, 1956-1980, (videos, 1982-1990, watercolour paintings of Victa premises, 1974, films (1959-1977) and poster, 'Mow 'em down magpies', c1981.

Archive creator: Victa Pty Ltd; Australia; 1953 - 1992

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1953 - 1992