![Austin Ryan back in 1991 with his invention of the year, the Ryan Deep Bander. Photo courtesy of the Ryan family. Austin Ryan back in 1991 with his invention of the year, the Ryan Deep Bander. Photo courtesy of the Ryan family.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/5Q2j7ezUfQBfUJsaqK3gfB/d22bc994-c6c9-4b49-85ca-5558c8c88740.jpg/r0_0_940_788_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
While farm machinery inventors have made critical advances to Australian agriculture, from the stump jump plough back in the 19th century right through to the ag-tech revolution of today generally, their work has gone unheralded in terms of public acknowledgement.
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One of the exceptions to this rule was Victorian inventor Austin Ryan for his influence on the grains industry and its transition to more modern, sustainable cropping practices.
Mr Ryan, originally from the southern Mallee, was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in 2001 for service to the rural cropping industry in regard to his inventions, which place him as one of the forefathers of today's modern conservation farming movement.
He is one of just three agricultural machinery pioneers to be similarly honoured along with Hugh McKay, of HV McKay Sunshine fame and seeding and cultivation equipment pioneer Tom Connor, of Connor Shea.
He is best known for a number of hugely popular air seeder and tine innovations.
Among his notable inventions were novel air seeder designs, one of the country's first working disc seeders and in his earlier days, the Scaravator, a 1960s cross between a scarifier and cultivator.
Mr Ryan's first agricultural invention was the Scaravator, the first wideline spring release cultivator which provided an option to the spring tine systems popular at the time.
As no-till systems became more commonplace during the late 1980s and early 90s Mr Ryan dedicated himself to tine innovations.
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His revolutionary deep banding tine and sowing boot system for fertiliser and seed won significant awards in the US in 1991.
However, it was his last invention, the Auspoint Press Harrows, he regarded as his best.
The system used unique self-cleaning springs instead of rubber press wheels to level a paddock behind an air seeder-cultivator rig.
This helped combat the issue of the rubber wheels clogging in sticky soil, a major problem in the heavy clay soils of parts of the Wimmera-Mallee.
Mr Ryan grew up in the heart of the Wimmera-Mallee cropping belt in Victoria on the family farm at Galaquil, south of Beulah.
Born in 1925, it was soon apparent that he had a talent for mechanical matters.
In his school years, Mr Ryan built billy carts and the like and was renowned for his Meccano set creations, before becoming more ambitious and winning a Beulah Show award at the age of 11 with a model semi-trailer.
He returned from boarding school at 14 to work the farm and was determined to use his mechanical prowess to help improve the farm, creating a wind-powered light using an old T-Model Ford gearbox and generator.
Mr Ryan first became serious about developing farm equipment in his workshop in 1960.
The Scaravator, initially manufactured in yellow and black, was his first major innovation and the success of that product helped set up the business. Among its features included a central hinge to help cope with uneven ground, and the world's first wideline spring release cultivator.
![Austin Ryan with one of the RFM range. Photo courtesy of the Ryan family. Austin Ryan with one of the RFM range. Photo courtesy of the Ryan family.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/5Q2j7ezUfQBfUJsaqK3gfB/5f79c0b9-a7d3-4b78-9094-ac90ffe382d6.jpg/r0_0_600_469_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
After licencing the Scaravator to manufacturers Bolwell & Johns in Horsham he began listening to growers' requests regarding tillage equipment and realised there was a need for more productivity gains.
With this in mind, in 1972, he launched the Ryan Scaravator, the green and yellow model, a superior cultivator compared to the original Scaravator, which became one of the most recognisable pieces of tillage gear of the era.
One of his first employees, local farmer Max Golder, remembers the early days of the machine.
He recalled when Mr Ryan contacted them to ask for help to make his plans for the Scaravator a reality.
"Austin told us if we helped him build the first one, we could have it on trial," he said.
"We agreed to that, and Dad and I started working there and helped him build it and then we first displayed it at the Hopetoun show."
"There was a lot of interest in the Ryan Scaravator after the show, so Austin bought enough steel to build five machines."
"Austin, my father and myself made those five machines all at once and he'd sold the whole lot before they were built."
Sales boomed and the manufacturing relocated to Warracknabeal in Victoria's northwest to meet demand.
In years to come, hundreds of these machines were made at factories across the country, including Horsham in Victoria, Parkes in NSW, and Perth in WA, with exports heading to South Africa, the UK and the US.
The 1970s marked a busy period for the business. In 1976, for winter planting, Ryan built an air seeder for use on his farm.
This pioneered a new system for planting seed versus the conventional drill system common at the time.
In particular, the seed hopper component that would straddle over the cultivator was a new addition to the machinery ranks in Australia.
He then patented an air seeder in 1978, amid myriad other inventions, including a chisel plough, twist-on shear points, a coulter drill and a trash float system.
Through the 1980s, Mr Ryan came up with a single-disc planter and, in 1986, his deep banding system.
While farmers widely use both products today, at the time, farmer acceptance was challenging, with many preferring to cultivate.
The Ryan family remain involved in the farm machinery game long after Austin's passing in 2005. Austin's son Paul took over the business in 1993 and moved it to Horsham in 1996. Paul continues to market Austin's inventions worldwide, including his coil wheel system, and renowned Ryan Tyne.
The Ryan business now trades as RYAN NT, with Austin's grandson Toby now making it three generations in the industry, joining as the firm's marketing manager.