Bottrill Road Train or "Big Lizzie" was the biggest tractor in its day, designed by Frank Bottrill and built by Austral Otis Engineering Company at Melbourne, Victoria in 1915-1916. Big Lizzie was approximately 10 metres high x 5.5 metres wide with top speed around 3 kilometres an hour! Bottrill had a patent on the unusual wheels which allowed the heavy machine to move over sand and scrub. Also see Austral Otis post.
Also part of the Ivan Hoffmann Collection, but not appearing here are from the books Big Lizzie (The Story of Man and a Machine) by Ron Maslin; Australian Tractors (Indigenous Tractors and Self-Propelled Machines in Rural Australia) by Graeme R Quick [i.e. Chapter 15]; I Like Old Cars by Frank Rodwell.
|
|
 |
| 20 December 1912 Engineering |
|
|
.jpg)
 |
| 16 August 1974 The Chronicle page 1 |
 |
| 16 August 1974 The Chronicle page 2 |
 |
| March 1983 Historic Australia page 1-2 |
 |
| March 1983 Historic Australia page 3-4 |
 |
|
 |
| Big Lizzie at Red Cliffs, Victoria |
 |
| Veteran & Vintage Magazine page 1 |
 |
| Veteran & Vintage Magazine page 2 |
 |
| Veteran & Vintage Magazine page 3 |
 |
| VTCM page 1 |
 |
| VTCM page 2 |
 |
| VTCM page 3 |
.jpg) |
| McDonald Tractor 18 July 1914 The Motor World |
.jpg)