Justin Hollister throws a block of wood through the fire door of his Metters No 2 wood-fired stove. He is making a cottage pie.

Sorry, this audio has expired The story of Metters stoves

"It's a simple, quick-ish meal," says Mr Hollister. "It's simple ingredients but takes ages to cook because of the Metters."

Justin lives in Waroona in the South West of Western Australia: prime Metters country.

Justin Hollister preps a cottage pie in front of his Metters No 2 stove. ( ABC Open: Ruslan Kulski )

Metters wood-fired stoves, designed in Australia and first manufactured in the 1890s, were a source of heat, food and hot water for generations of Australian families.

Gas and electricity have replaced wood as a fuel, but Metters stoves still evoke fond memories for those who grew up with them.

This winter, Justin posted a picture of the Metters warming his home to Facebook. It was shared by a popular history page, Lost Perth, where it garnered thousands of likes and hundreds of comments from people who wanted to share their own memories.

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But Mr Hollister insists he cooks with a Metters for practical reasons.

"The reason I still use the Metters is not to bring back memories, but because it's a nice, relaxing way of cooking.

"You put it on and go away and do something else, it's not like an electric or gas stove where you always have to be on it because the heat is so intense."

Once the ingredients for the pie are together, Justin pops it in, opens a beverage and sits down on the verandah to wait.

A Metters life

Nathaniel Motas has been restoring Metters stoves his whole working life. ( ABC Open: Ruslan Kulski )

A wood-fired stove restorer, Nathaniel Motas has spent much of his life around Metters stoves.

"It's a niche industry," he says.

At a glance, Mr Motas can identify whether a stove was made in Western Australia or New South Wales, and whether it's a No 1 or an Improved No 2.

Fred Metters appears in Business Men of South Australia, 1905. ( Supplied: Trove. )

Fred Metters filed his original stove patent in Adelaide in 1896 and the company went on to become a manufacturing powerhouse. While the stoves were a key product, they were by no means the only thing Metters Limited made.

"They did all kinds of household and industrial products," says Mr Motas. "You might know them for the early cooker, the gas cooker, their enamelling process, the iron baths, the vanities, the copper; they were a very diverse manufacturing company."

The stoves were manufactured in three states for logistical reasons: shipping iron stoves across the country via horse and cart was challenging.

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"The Metters we are familiar with in Western Australia are going to be similar but slightly different to the ones we see in South Australia, New South Wales. You can tell by the little embellishments on the castings, the hinges, the door handles," says Mr Motas.

The last Metters

In the 1930s both Fred Metters and his business partner Henry Spring passed away. The Metters company ceased production of the stoves in the 1970s, though a string of companies continued to use Metters' designs.

"We were vehement competitors," says Geoff Moore, a former director of WD Moore and Co., "but it can't be denied that the products [Metters] built were world leading."

An explosion chart from a W.D. Moore and Co. catalogue showing the parts required to build a Metters No 2 stove. ( Supplied: Geoff Moore )

In the 1990s, Mr Moore came into possession of Metters stove castings and manufactured them as a passion project until 2009.

"We would sell about 10 stoves a year, the market was dropping away," he says.

In 2009, they sold the castings to an Adelaide-based wood-fired stove enthusiast.

Mr Moore believes that everything required for a new batch of Metters is sitting in an Adelaide garage.

"[But] I have to be realistic here, it's never going to happen."

Justin Hollister's Metters No 2 wood-fired stove. ( ABC Open: Ruslan Kulski )

Justin Hollister opens the oven doors on his Metters and pulls out the cottage pie.

"Looks good: I've surprised myself," he says.

"Cheers Metters. You're already 70 years old, here's to another 50."