After their marriage, Archie and Rita made their first home at the mill.
Archie continued to manage the steam engine which controlled all the power for the mill to operate. During WWII Archie was ‘manpowered’ at Smailes’ Mill.

THE STEAM TRACTION ENGINE

In 1921, the Western Australian Government purchased six new Fowler Big Lion ‘B6’ stump pulling steam traction engines. These machines were mainly used in Group Settlement Schemes on properties in the south-west. 
Each machine weighed 16,326kg and had a top speed of 14km/hour and had an 18hp engine.
The first Fowler Traction Steam Engine that Archie bought, was one of two machines that were unloaded in 1921 in pieces at Fremantle harbor. The post WWI migration and returned soldiers Scheme WWI necessitated the use of
the 18hp monster. The machine was put to work clearing land in the Manjimup area for the Group Settlement Scheme.
In 1925 the machine was deployed for the purpose of land clearing for the Eastern Goldfields Railway.
Archie’s fascination with steam engines tempted him to own one of these Fowler Traction Steam Engines. He had worked extremely hard during the war years and saved money so he could eventually purchase one. In 1943-1944, the ‘bad boy’ was purchased by our very own Mr Archie Anderson and used as a tree puller.

Originally he used the machine in the hills area during the late 1940’s and the early 1950’s. Archie paid 400 pounds for his monster machine.
After the war had finished, Archie purchased two more engines and employed ten men.
The steam traction engine was extremely powerful – driven by the two most powerful natural sources of strength- fire and water. This enabled it to pull down the most stubborn and the largest of trees. For many years, these powerful machines were used for pulling trees and general clearing of land for many of our local orchard properties. 

Where bullock teams failed, the traction machines easily uprooted trees. Many huge tree stumps had been left behind after the sawmills had logged the area and were proving to be exceedingly difficult to extract.
Bulldozers were not available at this time in history, therefore the only options to remove these stumps were to either dig them out by hand or blow them up using dynamite. A better option was now at hand with Archie’s immensely powerful traction engine. A steel cable was wrapped around the stump and when the full power of this massive engine was applied the stumps were easily removed from the ground.

The method of clearing land with a traction engine was a long arduous process. Before clearing the land, “Dolly” the horse had to drag the heavy metal cable out and around the trees. The cable had to be raised towards the top of the trees. Once in position the slack was taken up by the engine, then the hard work to pull the cable through the bush began. The cable was set high up on the trees to give leverage to pull the tree over and uproot all the trees in its path. This was actually quicker than cutting the trees down.
The steam traction machine did not have any brakes so it was necessary to park the engine against a large tree to stop the engine.

The success using the Traction Steam Engine was so great that that contracts developed when the Government Tree Pulling Program was implemented to help in the establishment of the soldiers’ settlement scheme. Leon NEAVES, John SHAW and Joe GIGLIA worked with Archie, operating these machines. Many trees on the properties around Pickering Brook that were part of the Scheme, were tree pulled before being occupied by the settlers.
The SALA TENNA children played a game of ‘how far can you go without touching the ground’ by walking from one tree log to another on their property when their father first purchased the land.