Can anyone ID this old belt drive lathe

My family have had this old machine on the farm for years but a couple of years ago it was replaced with a more modern machine and I have a chance of getting it back. It is very old and very conventional, there is no makers name cast into it anywhere and I can find no rivet holes where a name plate has been removed. Suggestions on a maker have been a South bend clone of some sort, Seneca Falls and the State implement company (an Australian company I can find out almost nothing about). I have trolled the lathes UK site for hours and not found anything that resembles it although some features appear on a lot of lathes but not all on the same machine.
Anyone got any ideas on what it might be.










I must apologize for the photos, the larger originals aren't too bad but the resized ones are far less distinct.

If it helps anyone I will try and put a link to "Smokstak" old engine forum where I asked this question earlier. This post has the full size photos on it that are a lot clearer, it also has the photo of the tailstock that photobucket didn't like when I was resizing them.
It also has a more "long winded" story by me !

https://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=166138

If no one knows "what" it is or what it may be copied from, would you hazard a guess "when" it was built ?
When I bought it I reckoned it was probably built about 1910-1920 but with what I have seen and read recently it seems to me it could be anywhere from the 1890s to the late 30s !
The gold rush days out here were during the 1890s and early 1900s and its that period that Murray and I were discussing as a possible date for one of our local foundries to copy one of their previous imports from most likely either English or US makers.

Thanks Guys,

Graham (in Western Australia)

Looks a bit like a Colchester made Britannia...

Its a long shot but I think Ted is on the right tracks, It has some chareacteristics of a late Britannia I once saw.

Thanks Guys !
I know the late teens Colchester has the closest apron layout I found in my searching of the lathes UK site so I might do a bit more digging on Colchester and Britannia and see what turns up.

Thanks again,
Graham

Thanks again Ted and Mac, I think you blokes have solved a 30 year old mystery for me !
I did some digging on "Britannia" lathes and although I didn't find one "exactly" like mine, all the features are there and I am almost certain that it is either a Britannia from around 1920, or a Western Australian knockoff of one. I thought its production date would have been around 1910 but reading and looking it seems some of the features it has didn't appear until after WW1 so if that's the case I think it is too late to be made here and is more likely to be an English import. It is still up at the farm at the moment but next time I go up there I have several things to look for to confirm either British or Ausy manufacture.
For a lathe of its age it is actually in quite good order, nothing except the cross slide feed screw is showing excessive wear, the only thing that has been repaired is the apron, and that probably happened during the earthquake when the shed fell on it, all the gears are there and there are no broken teeth so I am really looking forward to getting it down here restoring it and using it again.

Thanks again blokes you have been extremely helpful.
Graham

Looks to have T slotted cross slide,with the top slide turn-table attached by 4 T bolts,typical late Britannia. Oddly enough,the later Britannias are fairly uncommon compared to a lot of really old ones. Def worth preserving. I had a late treadle one a size smaller than yours and made a complete Stuart Turner compound launch engine on it.

Thanks Ted,
I am quite looking forward to getting it down here, and whether its a local copy or the "real deal" doesn't really matter but I suspect the original UK version would be better quality than one built out here at that time. From what I read today the T slotted cross slide and the four bolt mounted compound are a tell tail sign of a Britannia, and the only reason I suspect around 1920 as a manufacturing date is that seems to be when they started using the tumbler set up like mine has, and by the mid 20s the half nut lever and carriage travers wheel had exchanged positions on the apron. There's no definitive timeframe for it's date of manufacture at the moment so I will most likely say between 1915 and 1925, that should cover most bases.

Thanks again,
Graham

Read this topic on the Stack,v interesting. I doubt it's a knockoff-however Southern Cross did do a good knockoff of a Lister!

"Knocking off" engineering products was the national pastime down here for a while about a hundred years ago ! I have a stationary engine built by JS Bagshaw in Adelaide that is a copy of an American Olin engine built at the turn of last century (unusual flat valves in it, no angle on the valve seats !) and many firms did the same thing copying all sorts of things and I believe quite often as pirate copy's with no licencing agreements, another engine manufacturer that did it was "MacDonald" who copied the American St Marys oil engines and they themselves were later copied by Cliff and Bunting so in a way we were as bad as the Chinese are now.

Thanks for the help with the lathe, I am almost certain its an import but I doubt there is any way of proving it one way or the other.

Graham.