South Australia's dry land farming methods and machinery a theme of the Roseworthy Agricultural Museum

A range of vintage tractors is among the exhibits at Roseworthy Agricultural Museum.
Image courtesy AG Clutch Australia

Roseworthy Agricultural Museum at Adelaide University’s Roseworthy campus was opened in 1976 to showcase vintage farm implements, working tractors, and stationary engines, with a focus on the evolving farming methods.

The museum also told the Roseworthy college history. Later a1600-hectare working farm and university campus north of Gawler, the college was established in 1883 as the first of its kind in Australia, teaching oenology (winemaking), viticulture (grape growing), agricultural studies, and doing agricultural research. The museum collection covered the many subjects taught at the college over the years including dairy, winemaking, horticulture and agriculture.

The museum emphasised the influence of local manufacturers and Roseworthy campus on developing dry land farming techniques but covered allied subjects such as dairying, shearing and blacksmithing.  

The many agriculture machinery models on display included a working half-scale stripper made by J. G. Ramsay of Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills and first exhibited at the 1878 Paris world fair. Other working models include a representation of the James Martin’s Phoenix foundry, a manufacturer of reapers, in Gawler and a working model of a 1908 Saunderson tractor – the first used in South Australia at the Roseworthy Agricultural College.

An operating Holt 45 tractor along (from around 1921) was displayed with many other working tractors, stationary engines and other agricultural machinery.

The Roseworthy Agricultural College’s historic three-storey main building remained the dominant entrance to what became the University of Adelaide Roseworthy campus. The museum's manager was University of Adelaide university collections and Roseworthy volunteer group with support from the Gawler Machinery Restorers Club.