POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Two mouse and rat trap making machines made by AW Standfield

Object No. 2001/85/1-2

The Standfield collection of trap-making machines and associated items is an unusual, indeed curious, ensemble of purpose-built machines and products that defined an Australian industry for sixty years. The collection exemplifies a 'making do' approach to manufacturing in that the machines were built from secondhand parts from a range of sources; it also exemplifies the notion of technological stasis in that the machines were always considered efficient and sophisticated artefacts for the making of rodent traps. Likewise, the organisation, traditional skills, and daily customs of the Standfield firm did not change from the Second World War to the end of the twentieth century, a period when rapid industrial change was the norm. The nature of production at Standfields was based on a belief that a unique machine would provide a quality product whose market was based upon the natural cycle of rodent population size. According to the Standfields, production was never based upon the traditional economic factors of supply and demand, as these concepts did not seem applicable to a production facility of this nature, size, and scale. Productivity was rarely increased or decreased from the machine's range, that is, 1,000 traps per hour. Product stockpiling was a normative value that was practised by the firm. Less demonstrative, but deeply embedded in the Standfield approach to manufacturing, was a belief that a well-made and simple product defined an Australian approach to the making of things.