Horsham’s Janice Merrett said her father Laurie Rogers of Kaniva built the sheaf hay stack with his brother Gordon Rogers at Miram near Nhill in the early 1930s.

Mrs Merrett said she found the photos and then spoke to her uncle, who was able to fill in gaps in information about the monster creation.

“The crops they cut to get the hay were cut in a very dry year like this, so it is timely,” she said.

“It was a 200-tonne stack, and it became the talk of the district. At that time, the biggest hay stacks were usually between 70 and 100 tonnes.

“It was sold by measurement.

“They had to measure the height, width and depth, and that’s how they come up with 200 tonnes.”

Mrs Merrett said the hay stack caught the eye of a Melbourne man not long after it was built.

“He saw it and he bought it,” she said.

“It was put on railway trucks and taken to the city.

“It had to be covered with tarps.”

Mrs Merrett said the stack was then measured by weight once it arrived in Melbourne.

“They found it weighed exactly 200 tonnes, so the original measurements were spot on,” she said.

“The man who bought it used it for stock.”

Mrs Merrett said her father, who died in 1999, later became a carrier and wood merchant at Kaniva.

Gordon farmed in the Nhill district and has retired to Warracknabeal.