Did you know that heritage mesh garden gates have been around for over 100years? Your Nana, or great grandparents probably had a mesh and wrought iron gate, gracing the entrance to their garden. Heritage gate or vintage gates evoke joyful memories for many people. The most popular and well known brand was Cyclone. However, there were many other foundries and gate makers around Australia, who had their own brand and styles.
History of Australian mesh gates
Mesh gate designs changed with the onset of industrialisation and automation in Australia. Surviving examples of early mesh garden gates were made with a mesh of fine, hand woven wire mesh (as shown below). We’ve been unable to find any information on how these were made, but it’s possible that peg boards were used. They would have been very labour intensive.
This little garden gate shows what looks like a hand laced wire mesh on the bottom half.
With the onset of industrialisation, the manufacture of woven wire was with the aid of large, heavy machines. The early loop top, woven wire mesh involved hand feeding strands of crimped wire into these machines. There were several different patterns of woven wire mesh available from companies like Cyclone, Emu wire and others.
This catalogue offered the option of two types of woven wire mesh, or the new chain wire mesh.
My favourite heritage woven wire mesh was the one with short and tall loop strands. Unfortunately, only one style of heritage woven wire, made by Emu Wire in Melbourne, survives and continues to be manufactured today.
The demise of heritage woven wire
Newer technology made the manufacture of chain mesh easier, quicker and cheaper. As the popularity of chain mesh increased, the manufacture of heritage woven wire declined. An ‘old timer’ told me that many of the original old woven wire machines from Victorian manufacturers were dumped into Port Phillip Bay. For that reason, there are now only two surviving manufacturers of woven wire in Australia.
Heritage Woven Wire
One of those businesses, Emu Wire, continues to use an original old machine to make their woven wire mesh. So, the vertical strands of wire continue to be hand fed into their machines, just as they were 100+ years ago. For that reason, a maximum of up to only 80m is able to be made per day. Consequently, it’s quite an expensive wire mesh.
We prefer to use Emu Wire (the better quality of the two brands) for our gates. This is because it’s stronger because it has more vertical strands of wire per metre than it’s competitor.
Chain Mesh
Except from the Cyclone catalogue showing the double loop woven wire fencing, and a small personal access gate with the small gauge chain mesh
The ‘new’ chain mesh ‘fabric’ found on earlier mesh garden gates, had a smaller aperture than that used today. The most common gauge of todays chain mesh is 50mm. Despite the smaller aperture chain mesh being made, its availability is limited. It is still manufactured, however, unless one buys hundreds of metres to warrant the set up fee, it ends up being cost prohibitive.
The smaller mesh is more expensive because the machines have to be set up for the smaller gauge. This can take up nearly a day so there’s a hefty set up fee. As this gauge is rarely used, it makes this a very costly process. As a result, few gates these days are made with the small gauge mesh. Which is sad really, as it looks much nicer than ‘tennis court mesh’!
What mesh gates does Farmweld make today?
Cyclone offered the option of different meshes in their gates, just as we do today. Their range of gate frame designs remained relatively unchanged for 50 years. Farmweld today manufactures a similar range of styles and we can reproduce some of the older styles that Cyclone made. We’ve simplified the scrolls for a cleaner profile, however can reproduce the older style with the twist if you want a more authentic ‘heritage’ look.
The original Cyclone mesh gates were sold in a limited range of sizes. Probably because they were mass produced. The common sizes were a single personal access gate, and driveway gates in a 1:3 or a 1:1 configuration. Single larger gates seemed less popular. Possibly due to limited space in front gardens.
Here at Farmweld we custom make each gate to fit your gateway. We use quality Australian made steel pipe for the frames, just as the early gates were made. Pipe is stronger and thicker than thin tubular steel. So, it should withstand children climbing on them.
Farmweld’s ‘Circle Gate’. Driveway gate pictured with chain mesh insert.
Farmweld gives customers the option of different mesh types. We offer:
- 100x150mm farm mesh,
- hand laced chain mesh, and
- heritage woven wire from Emu Wire.
Available gate mesh options (Gates pictured are the Maddison with Farm Mesh & the Kensington Gate with chain mesh and heritage woven wire).
Sizes start from small 1m garden gates through to larger driveway gates up to 4.8m long. Gates are available as single personal access gates and driveway gates, or a pair of gates in even or uneven configurations, eg 1:3 or 1:1.
To view the full range of mesh gate styles available from Farmweld visit the mesh & scroll gate page.