Compensation lever swing trees

A collection of old metal items that include gate hinges, saw blade, chain and branding iron. Gate hinge is metal branded with W.A. Photo: Rob Burnett.

Used to yoke three draught horses together, the compensation apparatus between the three swing trees (which attached to the horses or bullocks) equalised the load across the animals.

Convict wheelwright Benjamin Cooper was kept busy in the August of 1829, as William Archer noted that between the 18th–29th Cooper spent four days solid making yokes to aid in pulling waggons and carts.

Compensation lever swing tree. Source: The Book of Farm Implements and Machines, Slight & Burn, 1858, p211.
Compensation lever swing tree (Source: The Book of Farm Implements and Machines, Slight & Burn, 1858, p211)