The Victa lawn mower was invented in 1952, in the Concord, Australia backyard of Mervyn Victor Richardson.
In 1951, Mervyn's son Garry mowed lawns to earn money in university holidays. Garry borrowed Mervyn's cylinder-based power mower which was heavy to transport and to operate. Mervyn wanted to design a new mower for his son's business. Mervyn had seen Lawrence Hall's 'Mowhall' rotary lawn mower demonstrated in 1948. The heavy Mowhall required two people to use it (one to push and one to pull). It was not a very successful invention.
Although Richardson had developed rotating reel mowers for his son's business, in August 1952 he decided to make a rotary lawn mower similar to the Mowhall, using a Villiers two-stroke engine mounted on its side but utilising a lighter base plate, allowing use by a single operator. He wanted it to be cheaper, lighter and more powerful. It was called the "Peach-Tin Prototype", so named because it was made out of scrap metal with a peach tin used as a fuel tank.