Taylor, Headlie Shipard (1883 - 1957)

Summary

Headlie Taylor was an agricultural machinery designer who worked for H.V. McKay (later H.V. McKay Massey Harris) from 1914-1954. His major inventions were a header harvester in 1914 and the 'Sunshine' auto-header, the first self-propelled harvester to be manufactured in large numbers, in 1924.

Details

Born 7 July 1883. Died 22 March 1957. Invented a header harvester 1914, the 'Sunshine' auto-header. Supervisor of production of the header for H.V. McKay from 1916, retired in 1954 as superintendent of agricultural machinery works, H V McKay Massey Harris Pty Ltd.

Published resources

Book Sections

• Hallett, M. L., 'Taylor, Headlie Shipard (1883-1957), agricultural machinery designer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 12: 1891 - 1939 Smy-Z, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 180-181. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/taylor-headlie-shipard-8758. Details

Edited Books

• Engineers Australia ed., Anything is possible: 100 Australian engineering leaders (Barton, A.C.T.: Institution of Engineers, Australia, 2019), 136 pp, https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/2025-08/EA2_Anything%20is%20possible_0.pdf. 'A head for production - Headlie Taylor' p.36. Details

Journal Articles

• Doring, Carl and Doring, Margret, '100 years of the Header Harvester: Headlie S. Taylor builds the first header harvester in his farm blacksmith shop', Engineering Heritage Australia magazine, 1 (5) (2014), 6-10, https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/Learned%20Society/eha%20magazine%20vol%201%20no%205%20December%202014.pdf. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q22810758. Details
• 'Taylor, Headlie Shipard (1883-1957)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1465319. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_t.html. Details
• Engineers Australia ed., Wonders never cease: 100 Australian engineering achievements (Barton, Australian Capital Territory: Institution of Engineers, Australia, 2019), 236 pp, https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/2025-08/EA1_Wonders%20never%20cease.pdf. "A brilliant idea, by design", pp.142-3. Details
• Quick, G.R., 'Two hundred years of grain harvesting', in Conference on agricultural engineering 1988: an Australasian conference to celebrate the Australian Bicentennial, (Barton, Australian Capital Territory: Institution of Engineers, Australia, 1988), pp. 14-16., https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.660258743747482. Details