logs with Carl and Jake. Known as the Gladiator, this early machine was a key step in the development of Turbosawmill — rugged, productive, and capable of putting out a serious amount of timber.

Here we see Carl running the Gladiator, powering the carriage up and down the log and pushing the mill through the cut. This machine could produce timber at a serious rate — even with two off-bearers working behind it, they struggled to keep up with the volume of timber coming off the mill.

Here we see the first Gladiator fitted with computer sizing, developed in cooperation with Tailored Controls. This was one of our earliest moves into automated sizing, combining the original Gladiator platform with electronic control technology.

The machine shown here was operating in Australia with one of our early customers, sawing Australian hardwoods and helping us prove the system in demanding real-world conditions.

By 2013, we had developed our first chainsaw-powered swing-blade monorail system — and this was the machine that really helped launch Turbosawmill as a brand.

We sold hundreds of these mills throughout the Pacific Islands, including Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji. Its simple, portable design proved well suited to remote sawmilling and played a major role in establishing Turbosawmill in international markets.

This was the next major step in the development of Turbosawmill — our redesigned automated system using hydrostatic drive.

The breakthrough was working out how to automatically swing the blade at the far end of the log without relying on a complicated network of hydraulics and electrics. It gave us a much simpler automated system while keeping the single swing-blade concept at the heart of the machine.

You’ll also see Carl Peterson in this video, right there supporting me through what was a huge breakthrough in the development of the machine. That support meant a lot, especially as this design became a major turning point for Turbosawmill.

It helped propel the brand further into the United States and other international markets, and marked a major step forward in the evolution of our automated sawmills.

In 2015, we introduced a more refined automated machine. This was the first design that began to closely resemble the Turbosawmill range we produce today.

The machine brought together the lessons from our earlier prototypes and automation developments into a cleaner, more mature system. It marked the point where many of the ideas we had been refining over the years started to come together in the form that would shape our current generation of sawmills.

Here we experimented with a full frame version using the same carriage, but with two rails running along the base.

It worked, but it quickly reminded us why we had moved away from this style of design in the first place. Pushing the complete frame up and down the log added a lot of unnecessary weight and effort for the operator.

That experience reinforced our decision to continue developing the monorail system — keeping the moving structure lighter, simpler and easier to operate.

This was one of the more ambitious concepts we developed — a computer-controlled system that could automatically rotate the log as part of the cutting process.

It opened up some fascinating possibilities. You could produce large beams and octagonal sections, and position the log for quarter sawing, rift sawing and other specialised cutting patterns.

The concept worked well, but only one machine was ever built. In the end, it was simply more complicated than we wanted our sawmills to be. We have always preferred machinery that is simple, practical and easy to understand, so we continued refining the single swing-blade monorail system instead.

I was very fortunate to record my dad, Carl Peterson, talking about his first swing-blade sawmill prototype and some of the adventures that came with building and demonstrating those early machines.

In the footage, Carl shares a little of the story in his own words — the ideas, the early development and some of the experiences along the way. It has become especially meaningful to us because it was recorded only a month or two before his passing.

We are incredibly grateful to have this piece of history preserved in his own voice.