Southern Cross Book

Southern Cross engines.

About three years ago I bought a Southern Cross ET-B, 2 ½ h.p., air-cooled diesel at an auction. I needed an economical pump motor for a bore. I found the engine wasn’t exactly the “good goer” that the auctioneer had assured me it was, in fact part of the top edge of the piston had broken away.

As I live at Cabarlah, a small community near Toowoomba, Queensland, I wasn’t too worried about obtaining a new piston. After all, the engine had been made in the Toowoomba Foundry sometime in the 1950s.

Much to my surprise I discovered that the Toowoomba Foundry no longer sells parts for the engines it once manufactured. In 1986 the Foundry had held a monster auction and sold off everything connected with the engines it had once made. Rather disgruntled at learning this, I began making enquiries at various engineering shops around the city for ET-B parts. Sorry, I was told, they couldn’t help with Southern Cross parts any more. I was advised to seek help from the old engine enthusiasts; they might have a piston somewhere. Thus began an obsession with Southern Cross.

Over the past couple of years I’ve spoken to dozens of Toowoomba Foundry personnel from the days when the business was making engines – everyone from the janitor to the Managing Director. Many of these people have generously supplied me with engine-related documents, some of which were saved from the rubbish bins during the rationalization in the 1980s. I’ve talked to the man who designed my ET-B, and all the other air-cooled diesels, and I’ve travelled all around southern Queensland in search of the various models. There’s only one I haven’t got photos of yet but just last week I had a phone call from a chap in the Northern Territory who’s promised to send me pictures of one he owns. The book’s going to be packed with illustrations because, like they say, “A picture is worth 1000 words.”

I’ve learned some surprising facts about the Toowoomba Foundry and the 90,000 engines they made. The first engine was made by hand back in 1876, a 14 h.p. steamer. The first actual Southern Cross was a portable steamer in 1909. There were even Southern Cross steam locos in the early days of the 1900s; some of them weighed 106 tons. I’ve found examples of the first Southern Cross petrol engines from 1913; one of these has done very little work and would start up without much preparation. There were all the kerosene models of the 1920s-1940s, including the Lister copies (some of which are now worth more than the Listers). The first diesels appeared in the early 30s, small water-cooled ones which were later developed into the big 4-cylinder jobs. I’ve talked to the son of the designer of the early diesels and petrol engines, and he’s provided me with lots of valuable photos from his father’s collection.

As with all engine makers, they had a few failures which never got past the prototype stage, things like the 200 h.p. V-6 that shot cylinder heads through the factory roof! And the 60 h.p. marine engines which were rejected after two voyages around the world in the boss’s private yacht (I’ve even found a couple of the cadet engineers who went on these voyages).

Engine sales started to slow down in the seventies. Australian manufacturers were having to compete with subsidised imported products. The Foundry’s designers came up with some super new lightweight, high-speed diesels which would have been hard to beat, but the Directors weren’t willing to invest the capital required to put them into production. The famous old marque finally came to an end in 1983.

“What about the windmills?” many people have asked. I wasn’t going to cover them in my book but I’ve had so many requests to do so that I’ll be including all the various models of these tall stately beauties that everyone associates with the name Southern Cross. Lots of other products bearing the name also get a mention, including an aeroplane that barely got to fly before being shelved.

The writing of the book is nearing completion; I’m hoping to send it to the printer by about mid year. Then, finally, people like me who find an old Southern Cross at a sale will have a reference work to tell them all about that model. They’ll have the parts breakdown and the specifications, and the story behind its development. They’ll know if it’s rare or common, what problems they’re likely to encounter, and all sorts of other interesting trivia. I’m afraid it’s going to be a book that will end up covered in greasy fingerprints. (The attached picture is of the engine that started it all. I finally found a piston.)

Rob Laurent
Blue Flyer Publishing
www.blueflyer.com.au