The harvester is operated by a person seated on one side of the machine. The camera films, from various positions, the harvester as it is guided along the edge of the cane field.

An animated sketch demonstrates how the harvester elevates, tops and collects cane, illustrating all the major parts of the machine that aid this process.

Scenes of wheat harvesting are accompanied by commentary full of metaphors of nation-building based on ‘harvesting the benefits of a great past’.

A close-up of a ‘modern stud’ sheep is shown to be the product of a ‘century’s breeding’.

This silent actuality footage was taken by the official photographer of the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Frederick Charles Wills, and his assistant Henry William Mobsby in 1899.

Farm workers feed wheat sheaves into a threshing machine. A conveyor belt transports the processed wheat to a large stack.