Sunshine Harvester Works

Sunshine, Melbourne, Victoria

For 80 years, Sunshine, in Melbourne's industrial west, was home to the major agricultural implements factory, the Sunshine Harvester Works. In 1906 industrialist Hugh Victor McKay relocated his Sunshine Harvester Works from Ballarat to Braybrook Junction, a small village outside Melbourne.

Many of the local Ballarat workers followed. By 1907 McKay's Harvester Works had come to dominate the area. Braybrook Junction was renamed Sunshine, after the factory.

As well as building a successful factory, McKay established a housing estate at Sunshine. Here his employees could buy houses and enjoy community facilities such as gardens, tennis courts and a church. The streets were lined with trees and electricity was supplied to the housing estate from the factory.