Marshall Spreader
The Marshall Family emigrated from England to Tasmania around c1885 where their two youngest children were born. They then moved to the copper fields at Moonta in South Australia but ended up suffering from “dust on the lungs.” In c1906 they again moved, this time to East Broomehill to take up 1,600 acres of land named “Tama Grove.”
Arthur Marshall, the inventor of the Marshall Super Spreader, and his siblings grew up there and attended the East Broomehill school.
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THE MARSHALL SPREADER
The Original Spreader.
By Arthur Marshall
I think it would be a rarity that someone invents anything wholly on his or her own. It’s the capability to be able to put ideas together that helps come up with new things.
In the late forties and early fifties, the rail transport could not cope with the cartage of wheat from the sidings to the port, and the government had to employ private trucks as another form of transport to help haul the grain. Transport by rail was almost nonexistent during the war years because of very little maintenance being carried out at that time.
About five hundred trucks were used, mostly tip trucks that carted how eight tons a load, although I believe the heaviest loads were about twenty-five tons. In contrast, today’s wagons need to shift from fifty to eighty tons a trip to be considered profitable, and they are called road trains rather than trucks.
After the war, rail transport was back to full strength and road transport was finished. As that era of transport came to an end, I happened to be in conversation one day with a truckie friend of mine who suggested that we consider carting super phosphate in bulk. It was all in bags in those days, and even though my friend eventually sold his truck, the seed was planted in my head.
Finding work with a truck became hard to get and because all the trucks were in the same plight, I reckoned it was worth having a go at carting and spreading super in bulk. The big problem was how to spread the super as the super spreaders in those days could only hold half a ton and were made for tipping bags into and not in bulk form.
My first attempt at a bulk spreader was made like a half round tank, or a tank cut in halves longways. It had an auger on either side, with a nine foot long bin, and the two augers were on arms that lifted up while the bin was being filled, then rested down on the super. The idea was that the super would be augured to the back and onto a cross auger that would drop it onto a single spinner. In six weeks of hard work, with the support of an offsider, we finally carted and spread about one hundred tons.
To put it mildly, the spreader was a big flop. But nevertheless my mind was in overdrive as I could see there was a huge opening for bulk super from Geraldton to Esperance. What to do next?
An early Marshall Spreader
I eventually came up with the idea that chains needed to drag through the bottom of the bin just like the small spreaders did. I questioned if the chains would pull the distance if the bin was ten feet long. It was time to do some research and I went to an engineering firm in Wagin. They told me a farmer had asked them to put a chain in v channel and put some sheeting on the sides to hold in the super. His farm was close to a siding and he wanted to tip bags of super straight in, instead of carting it to the farm.
I made contact with the farmer who was shearing at the time, and it was morning teatime when I arrived. When I asked him if his name was Mr Anderson, he gave me a curt response that if I was a ‘bloody wool buyer’ then I was to get off his property. But when I informed him that I had come to see him about building a spreader, he poured me a cup of tea and we sat and had a good chat. He told me that the chain system worked well, which confirmed for me that I had overcome one hurdle.
There was however another problem that I needed to solve, which was how to put five tons of super in a single vee shaped bin as it would be too tall. I discussed the problem with whoever would listen to me and one day a friend suggested that I make a double vee bin. My mind took off at a thousand miles an hour as I considered this possibility and in no time at all the Marshall super spreader was born. As you can see, it was only by using other people’s ideas that I was able to make my creation complete.
A later version of the spreader
The Marshall spreader worked. The Marshall spreader was and is built from one to ten ton in size. But whilst I could see that superphosphate in bulk was the way to go, the fertilizer company saw it in a different light. All their industry was set up for bags. The companies at Esperance, Albany, Bunbury, Fremantle and Geraldton were all set the same way and it would take a large amount of money to change this. So, after finishing the season I went up to Perth to the head office where I attempted to convince the company bosses to think in bulk.
After several years, they came round to my thinking and between us, we set up the entire state with bulk super. Contractors throughout the state purchased the Marshall spreader and life, although very busy, was great. Audrey was left to carry the most important part of our marriage in rearing our children, because I was away a lot. But she sure looked after the home well. Without her doing all that she did, life would have been impossible for me. I never knew when I would be expected to go out into the wheat belt to fix up a spreader or give a contractor a hand to get started in his business.
The spreader sales went Australia wide and even if I say it myself, I felt that I had done a good job. I eventually sold my share in the business several years ago and spreader sales continue to remain a successful and competitive business.
My life then took another twist. I was at home a lot more and it w during this time that I went to work with my sons, mostly farming. was a good time, more relaxed and yet exciting. We started to bi and sell cattle and, for a time, sheep as well. Our children were all the age where they were getting married and starting to have children, of their own. The family was growing yet again and we had a real challenge with grandchildren coming into our lives. Audrey has always been a great support for our children and they love her for it.
Another business my sons and I started up was with granulated lime which was used for agricultural purposes. It was especially made to lift the ph level in the soil. We bought burnt lime from the Pei cement works and then attempted to roll it into pellets. It wasn’t easy but eventually we were able to make it good enough to go through our spreaders and it sold well. It sure was dusty work, but rewarding to see the semi-trailer loads going out of the farm gate. My sons Donald and David tell stories of how some business representatives would come to see us: there would be dad with a plastic bag over his head attempting to have a conversation with them. I wore a bag to keep the fine dust out of my hair.
Roesner Pty Ltd – Company History
From the Marshall Multispread website
Roesner Pty Ltd of Harvey, Western Australia, the manufacturers of Marshall Spreaders have been in operation for 117 years. Founded by Arthur E. Roesner in Harvey, Western Australia, the company’s original focus was blacksmithing, coach-building and manufacturing and repair of farm machinery.
The blacksmith trade became virtually redundant in the 1940’s and when Arthur’s son Roy took over the firm he introduced electric welding, a technique he had picked up in his time in the military during the Second World War. Besides general fabrication and repair of farm machinery Roy took on the International Harvester Agency selling tractors, ploughs and disc harrows.
In 1956 Roy was approached by Arthur Marshall to build a prototype fertiliser spreader, and by 1961 the first sales of the Marshall spreader were made to the local fertiliser company, CSML (now CSBP), as they wanted to promote the supply of bulk superphosphate fertiliser as an alternative to bagged product used at the time.
Marshall Spreader production grew quickly with sales throughout Australia and soon became the firm’s main activity. In the mid 1970’s the decision was made to specialise in the production of spreaders. Over 3000 Marshall Spreaders were manufactured.
By the 1980’s changes in farming practices lead to demand for an all purposes spreader that could spread ameliorants such as lime, gypsum, as well as manure and mulches. The Marshall Multispread was developed to meet this demand with the versatility to work in a wide range of applications, from small mixed farms to broadacre grain properties, vineyards and market gardens.
The Marshall Multispread has been Roesner Pty Ltd most successful product to date with over 10000 manufactured. Today Roesner’s have over 7000 square metres of shed space and use modern manufacturing methods such as Digital prototyping, Laser Cutting, CNC machining and automated paint mixing. Roesner’s continue to integrate modern manufacturing methods with modern and continual design improvements to meet the requirements of today’s agricultural industry.
In the face of increased competition from overseas products and a push towards automation, in 2013 Roesner’s diversified into software and electronics to develop new products for the fast changing Precision Agriculture market. The first software product, the Multispread Calibration app released in 2013, has over 3000 users in Australia. In 2015 the Multispread MDC app – one of the first hardware systems for Ag machinery based on mobile technology in the world, won the Dowerin Field Day, Best New Innovation Award.
The Marshall Super Spreader today
Sales of Roesner’s electronics systems grew quickly, and in 2018 the company acquired Precision Agronomics Australia (PAA), an industry leading company at the forefront of Precision Farming and Variable Rate Technology. The MDC system was merged with PAA’s Ratex system, rapidly accelerating the development of the i4M brand of machine controllers, mobile apps and web based systems.
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How the Marshall Spreader came to be
It’s not every day that someone has an idea which sparks an invention that revolutionises an industry. Back in the early 1950s, that’s exactly what happened to Arthur Marshall, the man behind the Marshall spreader.
When the era of road transport came to an end after the war and there was a switch to rail, farmers were buying and selling super phosphate fertiliser in bag format. Mr Marshall was chatting with a mate one day when he decided it had to be done better – he wanted to start carting super in bulk.
Arthur Marshall in later years
He says the ‘eureka’ moment came to him 60-odd years ago after a simple thought.
“I carted a load of ten ton of bagged super to a farmer who offered me a cigarette if I would put them up on other bagged super that had been delivered. I did it and I thought ‘this is no way’ because they were 185 pounds weight and thought there has to be another way, and that’s where the idea of building my own super spreader came into making. I got the cigarette,” he laughed.
Arthur lived in Harvey in Western Australia with his wife Audrey. Their sons are farming in the region and they were kept very busy with many great grand-children.