Hills Hoist a South Australian design upgrade on Gilbert Toyne's idea that is made a backyard icon
Hills hoists lined up for a promotion at Elder Park and its 1880s rotunda beside the River Torrens.
The Hills Hoist, hailed as “iconic Australian structure, an emblem, kid’s gym and merry go round, in every backyard”, has been proudly claimed as a South Australian innovation but the idea should be credited to Victorian blacksmith Gilbert Toyne.
After serving in World War I and suffering personal troubles afterwards, Toyne pressed on with his rotary line idea and even had it made and marketed by the 1930s.
Toyne lived to see his classic 1925 rotary clothes hoist design dominate Australian backyards after World War II but in a version credited to Lance Hill of Adelaide’s Hills Hoists.
The original rotary clothes hoist had been designed by Gilbert Toyne in Geelong in 1912. After personal traumas of serving in World War I and beyond, Toyne was still passionately committed to promoting the clothes hoist and improved the design in 1923 and 1925.
Having sold the rights to manufacture the hoist in Victoria, Toyle moved to Adelaide in 1926 to set up manufacturing centres in other states, including South Australia. In 1929, he shifted to Sydney and established his business at Five Dock, with his hoist selling nationally in the 1930s.
Lance Hill’s 1945 Adelaide version of the rotary hoist was inspired by his wife’s frustration with her failing propped-up single line. Hill teamed up with is brother-in-law and started churning out the first of millions of hoists from their Adelaide factory.
Hills Hoist, the rotary washing line with hoist quickly became a fixture in Australian backyards. Hill added and patented the winding mechanism in 1956.
The company Hills Hoists became Hills Industries in 1958. It bought an Adelaide tube-making mill to ensure supplies of steel tubing, which had been difficult to obtain during World War II. In the following years, Hills Industries also brought a galvanising firm, as well as a plate and polishing shop.
Hills Limited developed into a technology product and services business.
Gilbert Toyne died in 1983.
