Jeff

Are you looking for an old Simpson spun CO?

Aart

Hey Chally
Are you home for your trip yet ?   
Can't wait to see the old mans oven as I think it will be a good one I hope .

Good information and great photos Dave, I have one Simpson Bedourie which is 14 inches across, Im yet to find the other sizes you have.
Like you Ive searched around the net at different times but have never come up with much more than what you have already posted.
Simpson did make a huge variety of gear through the years. My Mother had one of their washing machines back when I was a small boy. I believe it was purchased in very early 1960. It ran on 32 volts, which was a commonly used voltage back in those days. Mains power was yet to come to a lot of small bush towns and people living on stations back then. At that time very few 32V appliances could be bought so I guess Simpson had found a small alternative market there.
The only other electric appliance she owned from memory was a 32V Sunbeam Mixmaster.

Chally here are a couple of links that Ive come up with over the years on Simpson, not a lot in them that Dave hasn't already supplied but they may be of interest.
http://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=1103

http://www.auspostalhistory.com/articles/1690.php

This thread has me interested, just did a bit of snooping around and came across this.

"One of the first buildings built in Bedourie, the Mud Hut was erected in the early 1880s with mud collected from Eyre Creek. The only other buildings from that time still standing are the Royal Hotel, across the road, and the original Police Station, which now stands on Ethabuka Station.

In the early days Bedourie was used as a stopover for drovers pushing their cattle down to the markets in Adelaide. Cattle from all over North Queensland came through here, as the prices offered in Adelaide were often much more attractive to the wily station owners than those offered in Brisbane. It is believed that the Mud Hut may also have operated as a Cobb and Co rest-stop due to the remains of a horse yard found out back, and an old horse trough, found in the bed of the Eyre Creek.

At the end of the 1990s the Mud Hut passed into the possession of Sir Sidney Kidman - the Cattle King.

The Mud Hut was bought by Diamantina Shire Council in 2001 from Jean Smith, and has since been fully restored with most of the original timber replaced."

So from that it seems that the town it's self didn't spring up until the early 1880s, the question now is, how long after that was the first oven knocked up. And by whom and where? Im thinking Simpson only put the idea into mass production and that some local smithy or metal worker knocked the first ones out. News of an idea like a new type of oven would have taken time to travel back then. Or possibly a local of the area saw the potential of the idea and sent rough plans to Simpson to have them mass produced. All just possibilities and things to think about.
Chally wrote on Feb 25^th, 2014 at 7:51pm:

You and me both.
SBB

Great read and photos, thanks for sharing them