Historical information

Tobacco farming began circa 1960 in the Kiewa Valley and consequently became one of its major industries. Many of the Italian families were involved in tobacco farming.

Significance

Historical: This equipment was used on one of the first tobacco farms in the Kiewa Valley at Mongans Bridge.
Provenance: This tobacco farmer came from Italy and was sponsored to visit a tobacco farmer in Myrtleford to learn how to grow tobacco so that he could transfer those skills to his own farm in the Kiewa Valley.

Physical description

The twine was used to tie green leaf in bunches onto the sticks. There were 26 bunches per stick and 500 sticks per kiln.
Spool of tying cotton used on electric sewing machine. With the bailing, the sewing needles were housed on a hook on the top edge (of the tying horse) with the correct length of string at hand - time was of the essence.
A large ball of orange, scratchy, twine kept together by a piece of twine wrapped around it.