These wooden cogs are patterns used for casting sugar crushing machinery in the mills run by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company and, as such, are historic relics from this important Australian industry. By the mid-twentieth century there was no counterpart to the sugar mill in either size or cost amongst the food industry. Australia's Colonial Sugar Refining Company was ranked second or third in world production.

It is thought that these wooden patterns were used to cast metal machine parts used in the huge mills of either Harwood or Broadwater in Northern New South Wales.

References
The Colonial Sugar Refining Company, South Pacific Enterprise, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1956
John Heitmann The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 77, No.1, 1998, 39-61

These wooden patterns are models for forming sand moulds. By pouring molten metal into these damp sand moulds, metal castings were made which in turn became components of larger pieces of machinery used by the Colonial Sugar refining mills.

References
Horace Traiton Purfield, Wooden Pattern Making, 1906

These two wooden cogs came to the Powerhouse Museum from NATSPEC, a not-for-profit organisation owned by the design, build, construct and property industry. They were removed from the old Colonial Sugar Refining site at Pyrmont as it was being demolished.

Machine patterns used for casting (2), wood, made by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1940-1980

Two wooden cog shaped wheels. Each is formed as a short central cylinder from which wooden teeth radiate outwards. One cog is larger than the other. Both are painted orange. One tooth has come loose from the smaller cog.

Made: 1940 - 1980

See parts

2010/47/1

1940 - 1980