A product borne, like so many, of necessity, the Furphy Farm Water Cart provided a much needed solution for efficiently transporting water. John Furphy was the first to see the possibility of manufacturing a single item that combined water tank and a cart to transport it. With the settlement development of northern Victoria and Riverina underway and significant drought in between 1895 and 1902 the water cart quickly established itself as a vital piece of equipment.

The design of the cart was simple yet effective. Cast iron concave ends were manufactured in the foundry. A rolled barrel made from galvanized iron was slipped over the ends and a ring then heated and slipped over the outside of the barrel to provide a shrink fit upon cooling. Thus the tank was water tight. Lugs cast into the ends allowed for mounting the tank on either horizontal bearers or angled shafts to accommodate fitting to a horse for transport. John painted the family name across the sides of the tanks and cast his name and more into the cast iron ends. Furphys Farm Water Cart had a number of words cast into its ends over many years. References to the foundry’s location in Shepparton as well as listings of various products also manufactured were present on the ends. But perhaps the most significant set of words to feature on the tank was the small poem encouraging continual improvement. Good Better Best, Never Let it Rest, Until your Good is Better, And your Better Best. This poem was to become synonomous with the water cart and with the company and remains the company motto today for both J. Furphy & Sons and Furphy Foundry.

Few family names become part of the common vocabulary of a country. By the time of the first war the Furphy water cart was a relatively well known piece of equipment – in northern Victoria and the Riverina and perhaps further afield. However it was the use of Furphy Water Carts in the huge AIF camps in Broadmeadows, as troops gathered prior to being despatched across the oceans to combat, that gave the water cart it’s prominence and led to a peculiar meaning. With thousands of men camped for months a virtual city sprang up and delivery of water to troops in the camp was provided by Furphy Water Carts. As the carts would travel around the camp troops would collect water and these gatherings at the back of the Furphy became informal opportunities to share or learn information or gossip about various goings on.

By the time the troops were in battle the water carts procured for use in the battlefields were built with no markings and became simply referred to as Furphys – such was their similarity to the carts so well known in Broadmeadows. This owed as much to the coining of the term Furphy to describe the potentially dubious nature of information gleaned from conversations around such a device as to the branding of the tanks by their manufacturer. After a number of decades as principally a soldiers word Furphy entered the broader Australian vernacular. Today its use is found principally in the political class where the term is used regularly. Fittingly there is a Furphy tank end mounted in parliament house – a gift to the parliament by Mr K. R. Ingram, former Principal Parliamentary Reporter – in honour perhaps of the importance to the reporting of parliament of the Furphy Water Cart’s unique role in Australian history.

While John’s manufacturing prowess and inventiveness established the Furphy name in Australian history his brother Joseph was to make the Furphy name significant in the field of literature. After marrying at 24 and suffering a series of droughts in Corop Northern Victoria Joseph eventually established himself as a bullock driver based in Hay NSW. Alas after 5 years of this occupation drought and disease wiped out his bullock team and he subsequently returned to Shepparton where his brother offered him work in the foundry. During this time Joseph toiled by night at his novel Such Is Life – most of which he wrote in his cottage behind the foundry in Welsford St. Such is Life was a collection of stories which reflected his time in the Riverina as a bullock driver. It originally appeared in the Bulletin in 1903 and has since been recognised as a significant piece of Australian Literature. Joseph moved to Fremantle in 1904 to be nearer his three children and died there in 1912 of a brain haemorrhage. For more information about Joseph Furphy visit www.josephfurphy.com.au and to learn more about the Joseph Furphy Literature Award click here.