Drawing of the original Ridley Reaping Machine.

In 1843 the colony of South Australia experienced harvest difficulties - there was an increasing demand for food supply, but a shortage of labour available to harvest by hand. In response to a competition organised by the Grain Exchange, a mechanical wheat stripper was designed and built by John Wrathall Bull. John Ridley improved Bull's design and successfully developed the stripper as a working machine.

The Ridley reaping machine stripped the grain from the crop using a comb and rotating bars, and stored it in the 'boot' of the machine for later winnowing. This South Australian invention revolutionised the harvesting of wheat in dry climates, and greatly increased the amount of land cultivated.

Conigrave, JF. Agriculture in South Australia: a description of the South Australian seed-sower, stripper, and winnower, Adelaide: E. Spiller, 1883

'The death of Mr John Ridley',The Adelaide Observer, 3 December 1887, p. 30, col. b-d

Kelly, WS. Rural development in South Australia, Adelaide: Rigby, 1962

Port, Leo with Brian Murray. Australian inventors, Stanmore, NSW: Cassell Australia, 1978

'Reaping machines', The Adelaide Observer, 28 January 1860, p. 2, col. e

Reddin, JW. The first stripper : settling an historical argument, Glen Osmond, S. Aust. : J.W. Reddin, 1992

PRG 1043/10/8 Sutton, G.L., The Invention of the Stripper, reprinted from the 'Journal of Department of Agriculture of Western Australia', 1937