The Swedes won Eurovision and now they’ve claimed best lawn thanks to an innovative robotic lawnmower (the latest creation by Husqvarna, imaginatively dubbed “Husky”), which was launched at the Embassy of Sweden in Yarralumla today.
The media launch rolled out 16,000 square metres of manicured lawn, rather than a red carpet, to show off this quiet, zero-emission lawnmower to their admiring diplomat neighbours.
After congratulating Swedish Ambassador, Pontus Melander, on the Eurovision win, I complimented him on his quarter-acre block (give or take a few metres) and asked him “how’s the serenity”.
“Now it’s so quiet, oh do I like it,” the Ambassador exclaims. “This is such a big lawn and this robotic lawnmower can start at 3am and I don’t hear a thing from my office.”
To borrow another quote from the Australian movie, The Castle, I ask the Ambassador if he takes pride in his front yard as much as Aussie battlers do.
“We have the exact same saying in Sweden, this may not be my home but still it is my castle,” Ambassador Melander says. “Absolutely we take pride in our lawns, we have one of the nicest gardens out of all the embassies. We were the third embassy built here.”
The Husqvarna (“hoosqvarna” if you’re Swedish) robotic lawnmower may be a new concept to Australians and their two-stroke Victas but in Sweden, one in every fifth household owns one.
“It’s very natural for us,” Ambassador Melander says. “People don’t want to mow. This is much more sustainable and you’re cutting your carbon footprint by 83 per cent.” (And the grass).
The Ambassador concedes that he doesn’t actually mow the embassy’s lawn, but he does back at his home in Sweden. This latest battery-operated mower can also do patterned mowing (like our chequerboard Parliament House lawns) and doesn’t even need an Allen Key to assemble.
“Waking up on Sunday morning and hearing your neighbour mow the lawn, that’s not fun,” the Ambassador says. “We have to electrify.”
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