The Robey steam engine provided belt power to the mill equipment by way of a complex belt, shaft and pulley system. An underfloor system was needed to connect all the elements to the single power source.
The Robey steam engine was what most engineers considered the ‘Rolls Royce’ of engines, a single cylinder, double acting, horizontal steam-engine built by Robey’s of Lincoln, England, No.40122, model E.S. This engine was first installed at the ‘Onkaparinga Woollen Mills’ in Lobethal, South Australia in 1922 and Bunning Brothers bought the engine from them in 1947 for £370. Its bore was 21 inches with a 24-inch stroke driving a ten-foot diameter flywheel at 150 revolutions per minute. The flywheel is a 10-grooved flywheel and power was transmitted by means of eight ropes. Maximum boiler pressure at 150 p.s.i., developed H.P. 377.
