Hay and chaff have been used as animal feed in Victoria since the 1830s when hay was cut by hand with sickles.

Horse drawn binders, which made sheaves from cut cereals of wheat, oats and barley, were developed in the 1880s. After a few days of lying on the ground, the sheaves were stooked with pitchforks and dried before being carted for stacking. The making of a hay stack required precision skills.

After cutting hay in 1939 on his farm at Patho in northern Victoria, this photo shows Don Russell bringing in the sheaves on the back of a horse-drawn wagon.

Like other Victorian rural areas, the rural population of the Patho Plains is decreasing. When landowners move out of the district, they take a wealth of historical knowledge and experience with them.

The Patho Plains Oral History Project was developed to capture the historical knowledge of farmers and landowners to better understand the changing landscape. These interviews and photographs form part of that project.