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Roller

Photograph courtesy TSA.

Plant Superintendent, Peter Barrett, found this horse drawn roller in pieces at a road reserve near Hawker in the early 1980s. Using original drawings from the workshop of H.B. Hawke & Company foundry at Kapunda, it was restored under the direction of the Highways Department Northfield Depot Heritage Group by workshop labour. The drawings also established that the roller was built in 1926 and was typical of a type used during the 1930s and 1940s. The dimensions of the roller are 4.6 x 2.0 x 2.4 m.

Two horses pulled this 3-steel cylinder roller. An open wooden box above the roller cylinders held rocks, or sometimes sand, to provide ballast. Dependent on the material being rolled, there was usually an optimum mass needed to reach the desired compaction. A handbrake and a seat for the driver is also in the box. As the single operator had to control two horses pulling the roller, it was imperative that the operator was skilled in the handling of animals.

Photograph courtesy HTSA.

Henry Binney Hawke established H.B. Hawke & Co. Engineering Works at Kapunda in 1857 and became well known in the fields of agriculture, mining, automotive and commercial engineering. In 1890 the firm employed 90 people. Despite changing ownership several times between 1883 and 1983 it remained the oldest engineering firm in Australia still trading under the same name. Although weighbridges were their main product, Hawke & Co. also supplied the Highways Department and District Councils with numerous pieces of equipment for road-making, and undertook repairs for other equipment.

Photograph courtesy HTSA Glass Negative Collection.

This 1930s photograph shows another roller, pulled by a crawler tractor and made by Hawke & Co., working in the Kapunda area.

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