This rusted hub is all that remains of the Steel Wings windmill that was once erected at Tamala Station, near Shark Bay, WA. It was probably supplied by the Bullock Electric Manufacturing Company of 859 and 861 Hay Street, Perth, Western Australia, who in 1908 had entered the field as a supplier of Steel Wings Windmills. They were the patentees for that state and had already erected a twenty foot model in a fifty foot tower at the side of their premises, which was sold to a pastoralist from the state's north-west before the erection was completed. The twenty foot windmill, which is possibly the first Steel Wings machine purchased in the state, is probably the same machine acquired by J. R. FITZPATRICK of Dairy Creek Station in the Upper Gascoyne.
The early part of 1908 saw an intensive advertising campaign by the Bullock Electric Manufacturing Company, with frequent large illustrated advertisements appearing in the Western Mail newspaper. Some significant sales were made in this period including a fifteen foot model that was purchased for "The Grange", a large stately home in the suburb of Claremont, and a twenty foot model that was purchased by the Monastery of the Redemptorist Fathers, North Perth. Sadly there is no trace of them now.
The Steel Wings windmill is the only known Australian windmill patented by a woman. She was Catherine Jane McMASTER, a grazier of Corfield, Queensland who patented her invention in 1905. The design was also patented in the US and Canada.
There are two known examples of restored Steel Wings windmills in Australia and they are at Taroom, QLD and Jerilderie, NSW. A replica of an 8ft Steel Wings was built by Jim SAWYER of Dalwallinu in Western Australia, and can be seen on the Dalwallinu-Kalannie road.