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At Southern Cross we’ve been designing and installing Windmills Longreach locals can count on since 1903.
With the support of Australia’s oldest windmill manufacturer, people of Longreach can sleep easy, knowing they’re supported by over 100 years of expertise.
People all across Queensland are well aware of the need for a sound water supply, and because of this, a number of these people continue to turn to a Southern Cross Windmill.
Home to the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame, Longreach has a long history of Australian agriculture since being Gazetted in 1887 on lands traditionally inhabited by the Iningai people.
Southern Cross offers a range of sizes in both windwheels, and windmill towers, and can consult with you to find the best windmill for you.
Our ‘IZ’ Double Geared Windmills range from a 6′ windwheel to a 14′ windwheel, and we offer tower heights from 20′ up to 60′. The most suitable windmill tower for you will be determined by your geographical location, and the size of your chosen windwheel.
The Southern Cross “FA” Series Windmill Towers are available in the following heights:
The minimum recommended tower height for each windwheel size, is as follows:
Wind power is the original renewable energy source. It has been used to power our boats, mill our grain and pump our water for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Windmills have been a part of rural living in Australia for more than a century, and is a great renewable energy source, along with being an Australian icon. For well over a hundred years, rural Australians in towns like Longreach have relied on windmills as a renewable energy source, and the humble windmill has become an Australian icon.
Still one of the best and most environmentally friendly water harvesting solutions, a windmill can be assembled and functional anywhere there is access to water, whether that be underground in a well or bore, or drawing from a river or dam.
Australia is a famously arid and tough country, and water has always been challenging to come by for rural Australians– so much so that 85% of Australia’s population lives within 50km of the coast.
The arrival of the modern windmill, thanks to George Washington Griffiths, was a game changer for pastoralists and graziers, allowing them to move further inland for stock grazing, where land was more affordable and accessible.
Despite being mostly used to pump water from deep bores or wells linked to underground aquifers, windmills can also be used to pump from any body of water, such as dams or rivers.
As technology consistently advances, there have been a range of challengers to the humble Windmill pump, the most recent of which being solar pumps.
Windmills are proven to have a lasting success that remains to be seen with the more modern solar pumps, with plenty of properties across Australia boasting wind pumps that are more than 50 years old and still functioning perfectly.
Windmill accidents account for less than 1% of all accidents on rural properties, so while solar pumps are often regarded as a safer option, they contain a dangerous current, and also pose risk of injury or death.
Southern Cross has been providing windmills that Australian families can rely on for over a century, and all of our windmills have a 30+ year design life.
Our windmills are hot dip galvanised, and backed by more than 100 years of successful windmill design, and Australian innovation. Since 1903, we’ve built over 250 000 of our iconic windpumps.
All Southern Cross Windmills come with a 3-year warranty.
At Southern Cross we pride ourselves in the design and integrity of our Windmills. We specialise in the design, manufacture, installation and servicing of top quality windmills, across Australia and around the world.
We design and engineer all of our windmills in house, and they are designed to be hardy enough to survive in even the harshest of Australian climates.
Authentic parts are available for Southern Cross “IZ” windwheels and “FA” towers. Parts for the retired A, J, R & Z Pattern Windmills”, “J” Series Windmill Pumps, Troughs, Check Valves, Pump Heads and Pump Jacks may still be available upon request.
From the very first Southern Cross windmill rolling off the Toowoomba Foundry line in 1903, nobody has experience like we do of dealing with Longreach and Australia’s unique water harvesting needs.
The first windmills built by the Griffiths family in the Toowoomba Foundry were improved versions of blueprints designed by an American Engineer, Daniel Halladay, and these were produced more than a century ago, in 1876.
These first windmills allowed rural Australians to move into more arid areas of the country for grazing sheep and cattle, and inland towns and pastoral runs began to emerge across the nation.
One might never know if Lord Lamington ever sat near a Southern Cross Windmill, while enjoying a lamington at night under the light of the Southern Cross, but we do know that these things are iconically Australian. And unlike the lamington, we know the Southern Cross Windmill was born in Toowoomba.
Operating out of Queensland to this day – in our Withcott factory – Southern Cross is an Australian owned and operated brand, servicing Australians from all across the country, from irrigators and graziers to rural families and households.
Now comfortably residing at the Gilgandra Museum and Historical Society, this 7.3 m Southern Cross windwheel was manufactured and transported to Mendooran in 1924.
While now used purely for display purposes, the Windmill pumped tirelessly and faithfully for 73 years before it was donated to the Gilgandra Museum and Historical Society by the Payne family in Mendooran.
Closing in on its 100th birthday, at the most recent service, all it needed was some oil in order to keep it in working condition. This Mendooran windmill is a testament to the durability and dependability of a Southern Cross Windmill.
Popular Australian comedian Carl Barron was born and raised in Longreach.
Longreach is home to both the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame, and the QANTAS Founder’s Museum, a monument to the history of Australia’s national airline.
Not in Longreach? For Windmills Cloncurry click here.
