FOR 62 years Peter Sturt has been involved in the growing of broom millet within the Tumut valley.
Millet looks like a tall, but spindly version of corn, but in fact does not sprout fruit and in fact many passersby mistake the millet for corn.
Not bearing any fruit it is only the very top part of the plant, when harvested, that is used.
The ‘straw-like thin fibre’ at the top when cut down is used in the manufacturing of brooms.
Peter’s family have been in the broom manufacturing business since the 1930s when his grandfather first grew millet.
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“Harvest started late February – which will take about 10 days to complete and in that time we will harvest enough to make about 6000 brooms,” Peter said.
“The top piece - the head – is what makes the brooms.
“The rest is slashed and once cattle have been allowed into the paddock and cleaned up the leaf part, the rest will be ploughed back into the soil.”
Peter is the third generation on the growing side of the broom millet industry in the Tumut region.
“Grandfather started growing broom millet in 1934 when the industry was very big and my father inherited the property out at Tumut Plains,” Peter explained.
“My father and my grandfather farmed out there until we were shifted on when they took the land at the start of the Snowy Hydro project.
“The little farm we had out at Tumut Plains was a grant from explorer Charles Sturt - my ancestor - to his brother and it was handed on until 1965 when the Snowy Mountains hydro project started to build the dam.
“That farm stayed in the Sturt name for all that time,” he said.
“We were selling to other broom manufacturers at the time the farm was taken over – there were a lot of farmers growing broom millet – it was a big industry.
“Every state at that time was manufacturing brooms.
“When that happened (the takeover) I went share farming for a few years.
“At one time all these river flats at Tumut Plains had millet growing on them, however, there wasn’t much growing left when I started manufacturing brooms,” Peter said.
“My wife and I bought this farm on Lacmalac Road about 50 years ago and I took on growing millet here carrying on the family tradition and went into manufacturing brooms 28 years ago.
“There was a young man Roger French who was interested in making brooms , where he had learnt the trade at Queen Brooms – he had another job but I said to him if we could buy some machinery we could start it off.
“Luckily Roger found out about some machinery which was being sold off from a South Australian broom maker - the Blind Institute (SA) who used to make the brooms.
“They had this container of broom manufacturing gear – the chap in SA – said ‘make us an offer ‘,” Peter said.
“I had never seen the gear but I made him an offer and the next day he rang back and said ‘arrange for the transport’ and we ended up with a hell of a lot of gear – sight unseen.
“It was all good quality stuff, made in Italy," said Peter.
“At times I've needed to find parts and we get the parts from Italy within six days - faster than you can get some car parts.
“So, we got into the broom making and Roger still works part time for me.
“He puts the broom on the handle and I do all the grading and stitching and preparing the millet – and put them in the boxes ready to send to outlets we sell to,” he said.
“The brooms we make are the only brooms in Australia that are locally made and made out of Australian millet.
“We manufacture ourselves and we don’t distribute the raw material as we use it all ourselves.
“When I was a young fellow you didn’t have many options – you usually followed your father in what he did and that’s how I got into the industry as well," Peter said.
“Luckily I had a soft spot for growing millet and manufacturing brooms, and I still do so retirement is not on the agenda.
“We have a stockpile of millet which would last us for five years," Peter said.
“I have made a lot of good friends on the retail side of it – people who have been doing it for years and are still doing it.
“We distribute (the brooms) as far as Queensland, across the border into Victoria and nearly all over NSW – we send to a big range of rural stores and big distributing stores."
Peter Sturt does however fear that the industry will be forgotten about in a few years time.
“People will not remember how much the industry meant to this region – mainly the growing of the millet," Peter said.
“When I was young – and growing 30 tonnes of millet I had young guys who were working for the Forestry and when the millet was ready for harvest they would take holidays and come and work for me particularly on the weekends and usually for a month.
"It was a way of them earning extra money.
“I have seen some excellent cutters in my days. One cutter that I had working for me was one of the best I had seen – Reggie Russell.
“He was magic that man; he was fast, he was neat and he was tidy,” Peter said.
“He would lay the millet down nice and neat and then when you went to cart it in, you could bundle it and tie it and bring it in – he was magic.
“The cutters working for me now and the last 30 years are older, hard-working , experienced quality cutters – the younger ones can’t work like the older
ones do in the millet, they can’t stay out there in the heat.
“When I was growing the big tonnage I remember out there at Tumut Plains I did 54 days straight and never missed a day, doing about 10 hours a day and seven days a week.
"I didn’t stop until the harvest was finished.
“At the end of the harvest you just kept on going – kept on working.
"You then had to hang the millet to dry and it took three to four weeks to cure.
“Most of the fellows that I worked with back then have passed away but we would get together every year.
"They were tough; they would stick it out all the time.”
Peter has old photos of his father and grandfather out in the fields, the trucks loaded high with the millet.
At one time they had the Millet Cutter’s Shield – which was a toilet seat – with the names of the cutters who were voted the best of each season.
“People don’t realise the work that goes into producing the brooms – Tumut River Millet Brooms," Peter said.
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Peter described how the brooms are put together.
“It takes five minutes to put the material on the handle – another five minutes to stitch them – all up a broom can be made in about 15 minutes,” he said.
But, that is after the millet is prepared and bunched for each broom – there is a selection from all four gradings that go into each broom.
“I do the grading – you have to grade it into lengths and Roger places millet on handles.
“Unfortunately it is a dying industry,” Peter said.
“When I was growing up the only way you got ahead was by working hard and having a go you didn’t have any money unless you worked. “
