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Threshing at Allora (1899)

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Threshing at Allora

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

Farm workers feed wheat sheaves into a threshing machine. A conveyor belt transports the processed wheat to a large stack. In the foreground, a team of horses brings a loaded cart of wheat to the machine.

Curator’s notes

This clip amply fulfils Wills and Mobsby’s government brief to capture footage of agricultural practices, in this case wheat threshing on a farm at Allora, on the Darling Downs in south-western Queensland. Threshing machines separate the wheat grain from the stalks and husks. This step in the process of preparing grain is the origin of the saying 'to separate the wheat from the chaff’ (to extract what is valuable from what is worthless).