Jim Zimin

Innokentiy Temofeevech "Jim" Zimin (26 November 1902 – 31 August 1974) was a Russian-born Australian peanut farmer. He was born in Sretensk, Siberia, Russia and died in Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia. Zimin designed and built his own peanut digger, which was to receive, in 1949, the first agricultural patent awarded to a resident of the Northern Territory.

Life Zimin was born on 26 November 1902 in Sretensk, Siberia, in the Russian Empire, the son of Tomefoy Nikolaevisch Zimin. Following the Russian Civil War he moved to Harbin, China and was trained as a chauffeur and mechanic at the Young Men's Christian Association.

Zimin emigrated to Australia, arriving first in Brisbane, in 1927 where he found employment in Queensland; in 1929, he acquired government land meant for peanut farming near the Adelaide River, and founded I. T. Zimin & Co. with five Russian partners. Their operations received little funding and harvesting was manual; while successful, the venture ceased in 1930, whereupon Zimin relocated to Katherine.

After the war Zimin was faced with dwindling demand and weather fluctuations, crop disease (including Crown Rot) and which were capped by a flood in 1957.

Legacy On 30 July 1982 a stretch of the Stuart Highway was renamed Zimin Drive, in his honour.