24ft Comet Windmill erected 1917

27ft 'D' Pattern Comet

Sidney Williams immigrated to Australia from England in 1871. He founded the Sidney Williams and Company in 1879 in Rockhampton QLD. Additional manufacturing facilities were established in Dulwich Hill in 1920, a Sydney suburb, which eventually became the only manufacturing plant untill the company was sold to Rapid Rain Industries in Seven Hills, a Sydney suburb, in 1992. Sidney Williams specialised in direct acting mills and their accessories, by the name 'COMET'. This is a exceedingly simple windmill, constructionwise, and is totally reliable. The original 'C ' pattern mill had sizes ranging from 6ft to 35ft. Now only 6ft to 14ft are available in 'C' pattern. The 'D' pattern mill is available in 16ft to 30ft.
The bearings and the shafts of these mills operate in separate weather-proof oil boxes. Bearings are of lignum vitae or spottedgum, a purpose to which Australian hardwoods are admirably suited. Over a period of time these hardwood bearings develop an almost glass-like surface.
The 'COMET' windmill has a fine record of longevity, as many of the larger sizes have been in continuous use for well in excess of 50 years with only minor repairs being necessary during that time. These gentle giants with their trapezoidal tail sheets are a familiar sight in inland Australia, and doubtless will continue to be so into the indefinite future.
It is interesting to note that, not only have Sidney Williams and Company, in their long career as a major builder of windmills in Australia, built some of the largest steel windmills ever made in the world, but also one of the smallest.
The company produced a tiny windmill named the 'MIDGET', as indeed it was. This Lilliputian mill had a wheel diameter of a mere 3 feet. Designed primarily for exceedingly shallow lifts, such as pumping from ponds or springs, its main purpose was to supplement water supply for rural dwellings whose only source of water was that provided by tanks for the collection of rainwater from the runoff from roof tops.
The MIDGET, like its big brother the COMET, was a direct acting windmill. Although Williams had occasionally ventured into the field of geared mills, one of their ventures being the 'METEOR' mill for a short period in the 1933, their hallmark has throughout most of their history, been direct acting types.

Sidney Williams, Dulwich Hill, Sydney, the proprietor and founder of the Rockhampton and Sydney branches of the well-known engineering firm of Williams Ltd., and the inventor of the Comet windmill, which has established popularity all over the continent.
Born in London on July 25, 1851, and educated at Low-Leyton, Essex, Mr Williams comes of an old London commercial family, his forbears having successively engaged in business in the world's metropolis for centuries. He was trained as an architect, and at the age of 20 left England for Australia, arriving in Melbourne in 1871. Here he found no opening in his profession and took the first employment offered, a labourer. Learning about the gold-mining possibilities that had been in Bendigo for a little over a decade, he moved to Bendigo. From Bendigo he joined the gold rush to Charters Towers, QLD. After spending some time there, he moved to Toowoomba, where he became engaged as an assistant in the iron-mongery trade, for a year or two. He next proceeded to Townsville and secured a position in a store owned by Messrs. Burns, Philp, and Co. Desiring to try his luck at farming, he relinquished this post and took up a selection (near Mount Elliot) which, 3 months later, sold as a profit.
He then directed his steps to Rockhampton, where, as a counter hand, he again secured employment in the iron-mongery business. While thus engaged, he saw an advertisement in one of the newspapers, calling for competitive designs for a Grammar School. He sent a plan of the projected building, which was selected from 20 other competitors. In the year 1879, with the money he earned from his plans used to build the Rockhampton Grammar School building, he in conjunction with his brother, Herbert, started the engineering and iron-mongery business which was run under joint ownership for a period. The engineering branch was under his personal direction, and flourished and expanded until it was found necessary to establish a branch in Brisbane and a warehouse in Townsville. Also in 1920 he established the engineering works, which cover an acre of ground, at Dulwich Hill, Sydney. In the busy season, over 200 employees are engaged by the firm of engineers of which Mr. Williams is principal. Their operations embrace the manufacture of pastoral machinery, including windmills and pumps capable of raising as much as 200,000 gallons per day.
Mr. Williams invented the Comet windmill when the sub-artesian resources of Australia were becoming generally recognized and availed by pastoralists. He at once saw the necessity for economically worked and especially adapted machinery for raising these supplies, a 16ft mill being about the largest produced at the time, and not capable of pumping to the very great depths at which the sub-artesian water is often procured. Before long the Comet, which he designed with the assistance of his eldest son Arthur, was placed before the public, and since then has been manufactured in various sizes with wheel diameters ranging up to 35ft. The Comet is capable of pumping from a depth of 600ft., sufficient water for 1,200 bullocks. Comet windmills, which are found all over Australia, are irrigating large areas of land in the Burdekin district, where they pump upwards of a million gallons daily, thus ensuring crops against the effects of drought.
Mr. Williams, in the midst of a very busy life, has found time for public work. He was Mayor of Rockhampton for 2 years, and a member of the Hospital Board, a trustee of the Rockhampton Grammar School, president of the School of Arts, and other communal interests during his sojourn in that city.
He married Lydia, daughter of the late Alfred T. Wood, in 1880, and has a family of 4 sons and 4 daughters, all born in Rockhampton. The sons, who are qualified engineers, are engaged with their father in business, the eldest, Arthur, being the General Manager, and resident in Rockhampton. During the First World War, the second son, George, who was in America at the time, proceeded to Canada and there enlisted, remaining on active service until the Armistice was signed. The other two sons, Reginald and Wallace, were chiefly engaged in munition making during the War. Mr. Sidney Williams' eldest daughter married Lieut.-Col. A. R. Woolcock, who is in charge of the Military District of Rockhampton, and also the present secretary of the company Williams Ltd.

John Hutchinson & 16ft 'D' Pattern Comet, - Molong N.S.W.

Outback - QLD.

20ft 'D' Pattern Comet - S.A.

'C' Pattern Comet Head