It took two years, countless phone calls and the steely determination of an 84-year-old, but Australia's only known cross-legged Stover windmill has been restored to its original glory.
Windmills, an iconic symbol of outback Australia, were crucial to developing livestock industries and settlements as they provided wind-pumped water.
Retired West Australian grain farmer Jim Sawyer has been restoring and displaying windmills for 10 years, but renewing the American-made, predominately wooden Stover presented him with challenges like no other.
Several years ago, a friend alerted him to an unusual windmill advertised for sale in an estate at Yangan in Queensland.
"He had researched it and found out it was a very rare Stover windmill. The chap selling it had no idea what it was. He only knew it was a windmill," he said.
The windmill had been in storage for 50 years, and all that was left was the engine made of cast iron.
A mysterious and rare sight in Australia
Mr Sawyer said the Stover windmills were manufactured in the US in the 1880s, and he was only aware of two other cross-legged Stover windmills in the world — one identical to his and the other much larger.
"I've no idea how this particular one came to be in Australia, I don't think there is another one in Australia," he said.
"Stover and Samson were the same company. They made a lot of windmills and I think they were used all over America, but for some reason there are very few of them turning up."
Mr Sawyer then endeavoured to find more information about the windmill.
"When I spoke to the person selling it, he was selling it for his father, and he had the phone number of the chap he had bought it from," he said.
"That chap was still alive. I was able to contact him and he could remember the mill, because it belonged to his father, and he could tell me roughly what the colours were and a little bit about it.
"He was in his 90s. I thought that was pretty good."
A challenge like no other
When the windmill arrived at Mr Sawyer's place, it also brought a large logistical challenge — figuring out the unique way the four legs of the windmill crossed and fitted neatly together.
"If you had a tower coming out, normally you'd have to have the axle and the wheel overhanging a long way to clear the tower, but this [crossing] method allows the wheel to be in close to the tower and still miss the legs," he said.
After fruitless phone calls to America, where two Stovers are in museums, Mr Sawyer decided to tackle the challenge himself looking at only photographs.
"I eventually tried with small pieces of timber and managed to work out how it would be, and then I built the tower with the legs that are on it today," he said.
Again unable to access any information on the rest of the windmill, such as the vane or shut-off gears, Mr Sawyer worked from photographs and built a small replica model out of wood and manipulated it until he was happy it looked correct.
An addition to a popular shed
Mr Sawyer said he chipped away at restoring the Stover for more than two years, and he reduced its size to 3 metres to fit into the Windmill Shed museum at Dalwallinu.
The Windmill Shed houses more than 90 windmills.
"I'm quite pleased it is finished because it was taking a lot of time," Mr Sawyer said.
Ten years ago Mr Sawyer passed a neighbour who had just erected a new solar pump, which made him think the windmill's days may be numbered.
"I thought I would try and restore the windmill history because it was the windmill that was responsible for outback Australia, the development of sheep and cattle stations," he said.
"When I started I thought I'd only just work on a few, but it gradually grew and grew until I decided the best way was to put them in a shed so they wouldn't deteriorate and have them on a short tower so people could study the workings of them."
The shed is proving to be a popular attraction, with 450 visitors in August and September last year.
"It's quite good really, we don't charge for people to come, if they're interested they'll come and look," Mr Sawyer said.
"I just hope the boys continue with it for a fair while."
