This "homemade rake" is constructed from a branch of a tea tree. This item demonstrates that in the mid to late 1800's the isolation of the Kiewa Valley was more pronounced than during the early 1900's. The availability of gardening implements to the residences within the Kiewa Valley was scarce to non existence. with the upgrading of roads into the valley and the boost to the Valley's population (S.E.C. Kiewa Valley Hydro Electricity Scheme) transport into the valley, firstly via commercial Hawkers in their mobile caravans and later by commercial trucks. This "home made" rake is very significant because it highlights the ingenuity of local farmers and graziers in overcoming the semi isolation of the Kiewa Valley and its regions from the commercial availability of gardening implements enjoyed by gardeners in the towns and cities of the 1800's and the early 1900's. This "home made" garden rake highlights the ingenuity of the "Australian" character per se. A slice of this ingenuity can be seen by the amount of inventions, per capita, produced within Australia throughout its history.Handle is a long, stripped branch of tea tree. The head of the rake is a 2.3 cm. wide piece of wood, compressed between two 0.5 cm. pieces of metal joined with bolts, nuts and rivets. The holes drilled into the wood hold metal tines 10.5 cms. high. There should be 16 tines but 4 are missing. This type of rake is/ was used in dairiestimber, dairy, farm, rural, implement

This "home made" squeegee was manufactured in the mid to late 1900's by an ingenuous dairyman as a solution to the removal of cow "pats" from the concrete floors of his "milking" sheds. The tea tree made squeegee (being made from nature's anti bacterial material) was an excellent hygienic implement to use. This "home made" wooden squeegee is very significant to the Kiewa Valley and its surrounding regions because it highlights the natural ingenuity found in the pioneer farmer, grazier and other rural folk. It demonstrates the "mother of invention and adaptation" is very strong in rural areas where "off the shelf" products were a rare quantity. Part of the natural psyche of the rural Australian inhabitants is the ability to produce inventions that overcome physical restrictive conditions, "the man/woman of all trades" is an apt description of the pioneers of yesteryear and of those to come.The squeegee handle is a long branch made from a tea tree, inserted into the upper flat side of a slab of tea tree wood which is flat on one side and curved on the other, the natural curve of the tree trunk. This squeegee was used on dairies for removing cow manure.timber, dairy, farm, rural, implement