The amazing and sad true story behind an iconic Australian invention

We all know very well what a Hills Hoist is. But chances are many are unaware of the true story behind how it was invented.

If you Google the history of the Hills Hoist, chances are you’re going to stumble across the wrong story.

The good old rotary clothesline, which is still a backyard staple at suburban homes across Australia, is one of the best inventions to come out of our great nation.

But it’s the story behind how it came about that’s even more remarkable.

Adelaide businessman Lance Hill got credit here and around the world with his clothes hoist company, Hills Hoists, in 1945.

It was said his savvy business brain and clever marketing techniques helped it become a household name.

Lance Hill (to the left) at his Hills hoist factory in Adelaide circa 1946.

But it was actually another man that invented the humble hoist, decades earlier, who suffered an extremely tragic life and never got the credit for the item he worked so hard to create.

Foxtel’s new show, Aussie Inventions That Changed The World, profiles some of the greatest inventions that were designed Down Under.

Gilbert Toyne, who was born in 1888 in Victoria, was only 14-years-old when he discovered a gap in the market, while he was learning his blacksmith trade.

As one of 13 children, Toyne watched his mother struggle to do the washing every Monday, with the chore often taking her an entire day.

“They would use a homemade straight timber prop, carefully putting it (the washing) all out, it was so much hard work,” historian Peter Cuffley said.

“Gilbert would’ve seen his mum doing endless washing and he would’ve been very conscious of that.”

It was an era of extreme social and scientific development. Previous years had seen the introduction of steam turbine, electricity and the automobile.

Inventor of the Toyne rotary clothes hoist, Gilbert Toyne in soldier uniform. Picture taken from book "Hung Out to Dry" by Cas Middlemis.

With fellow blacksmith, Lambert Downey, Toyne launched the Aeroplane Clothes Hoist Company in Melbourne; the pair marketing their invention at local agricultural shows.

Business was going strong at first, and just as it was beginning to make dividends, Toyne, like so many other men his age, enlisted to serve in the first World War in 1914.

He left the business in the hands of his unnamed wife and his unnamed business manager, where unfortunately it would suffer in his absence.

In 1916, Toyne was on the western front in France when he was gassed. That same year, he was buried by an exploding shell, but somehow managed to survive.

He returned to Australia in 1919 with post traumatic stress disorder, or as they called it back then, shell shock, as well as hearing loss.

On top of dealing with that, he came home to discover the company was collapsing in the hands of his manager and his wife, who engaged in an affair while Toyne was away and gave birth to their own baby girl.

Toyne was forced to leave his wife and start over, and he met another woman named Myrtle, who he would go on to marry. She inspired him to start up his company again, which he did in 1923.

Toyne moved to Adelaide to capitalise on the manufacturing boom, and in an interesting turn of events, was residing on the same street where the man who would later steal his spotlight — Lance Hill — was living as a younger boy.

A few years later Toyne moved to Sydney with his family to grow the business further.

But this would be where it all ended.

Lance Hill with his Hills hoist.

The Great Depression hit Australia hard in 1929. By 1932, a whopping one in three men were unemployed.

Toyne’s sales hit record lows. He was also suffering unimaginable heartbreak after his three children all died in unexplained circumstances.

He was then enlisted to fight in the second World War in 1939, and his competitor Lance Hill would go on to capitalise on the post war economic boom.

There were 17 hoists on the market after the second war but Hill launched several clever marketing campaigns to capture the attention of Aussies and become the leading Hills hoist business on the market.

At the end of 2017 it was announced that his company, Hills Limited, which became a technology solutions company with a share market value of $100 million, had sold to overseas manufacturing giant, Griffon Corporation.

Hills hoist was named Australia's most iconic brand according to a survey commissioned by Australian Reader's Digest in 2014.

While Toyne’s efforts were nailed by events out of his control, there is no doubt he established the first ever Hills hoist and pioneered an invention that is synonymous with Australia a century later.

Toyne died at the age of 94 in 1983. He lived to see his invention dominate backyards across the country — just unfortunately to someone else’s credit.

His great granddaughter Kylie Baetz said: “He wasn’t a man that talked a lot. He had a lot of ideas and great skill, he just wasn’t a businessman first.

“Gilbert was onto a really good idea, and you see today things fall apart quite quickly, but his products were built to last”.

Aussie Inventions That Changed The World is available to stream on Foxtel from tomorrow.