One of Australia’s oldest and rarest collections of agricultural and earthmoving machinery provides visitors with a nostalgic stroll into the past
In the small rural town of Ilfracombe, central Queensland, lies a historic museum that showcases some of Australia’s rarest and oldest agricultural and earthmoving machinery.
Known as the Lynn Cameron Machinery Mile, the mostly outdoor museum is at the heart of the town, with the machines arranged along Ilfracombe’s main road.
This makes it near-impossible for drivers passing through to miss.
The display of machinery was established by the Ilfracombe Historical Society in 1969 and has slowly but surely grown into a collection of more than 170 historical pieces of equipment including tractors, graders, ploughs, balers, bulldozers and much more.
Considering the rarity and age of the machines, with some dating back more than 100 years, it is amazing that almost all machines have been collected within 200kms of the town – purely from voluntary work of Ilfracombe’s residents.
Martin Forrest, who was an Ilfracombe Historical Society committee member for more than 40 years and ex-mayor of the Ilfracombe Shire Council, says the museum has always made a considerable effort to collect local machinery which would otherwise be lost or deteriorating.
“There was always a small collection of machinery which was first displayed in a shed,” he says.
“Over time it grew too big for that, and the equipment was placed outside to form the Machinery Mile.”
Collecting equipment
The museum’s collection is built from volunteers who donated their time to travel to various places and source machinery from local properties.
Forrest says many machines were just lying around, having been replaced by newer ones. Luckily enough, lots of the machines were still in reasonable condition, thanks in large part to Ilfracombe’s harsh climate, which Forrest says can lack rain for 10 months of the year.
“We were fortunate rust wasn’t a big problem, so it was easier to preserve the machines,” he says.
Although this was the case, Forrest says it was still a significant effort to re-paint the equipment and get them back into their original condition.
Once the museum gained prominence, people started donating their own machinery, which Forrest says was often sitting in rubbish dumps.
“People thought to offer their machines because they believed it would be going to a good cause if it was placed in the Machinery Mile,” he says.
“Volunteers started picking up whatever gear was being offered and brought it in.
“It was important to keep the collection local to showcase the history of the town.”
Rare sightings
Visitors of the Lynn Cameron Machinery Mile can expect to see all kinds of historic machinery, with informational plaques that tell the story of each piece of equipment.
Where information is available, these plaques provide the machine’s age, use, donor and other fascinating facts from its past.
One of the most intriguing agricultural machines in the collection is a 1917 Ruston Proctor tractor, which its plaque says is one of only three remaining in the world.
This fact has been confirmed by the world authority and register keeper of Lincoln, England.
The plaque adds this machine was the forerunner of the Caterpillar tractor, with many of them sent to Russia during the first World War.
Another piece of equipment from the museum that catches the eye is a Marshall oil tractor, which is believed to be purchased in 1914.
While a lot of its early history remains unknown, the machine’s plaque says it was used for fire ploughing, as well as wool and wood carting until about 1922.
Caterpillar’s first grader series made in 1935 is another highlight of the collection.
According to its plaque, this machine worked on a new road through Tambo, Queensland, during World War II. It finished in Darwin and survived the Japanese air raids.
Featuring a 12-ft (3.65m) blade, the grader is claimed to be the first series D6 motor made.
When the machine first arrived at the Machinery Mile, volunteers helped get it back up and running, even grading a small local road with it.
Also prominent during WWII and featuring at the museum is a 12-tonne Stuart Tank, which has been cleverly re-engineered into a bulldozer.
Forrest says many Queensland-based graziers used these machines to knock down shrub to feed livestock in drought years.
“Machinery came in cheap after the second World War and I think some of the graziers realised that these tanks had agricultural potential,” Forrest says.
“Those tanks were sort of the forerunner of what would be replaced today by your normal bulldozers.”
Its plaque says the Stuart Tanks were sold at auction for five pounds each following the war, including a spare engine and a set of tracks.
The original engine was a seven-cylinder air-cooled radial that had been used by planes.
To re-engineer the tanks into bulldozers, the turrets were removed and replaced with dozer blades, in which the modified machines were resold for 500 pounds each in the early 1950s.
Lynn Cameron
The Machinery Mile is named in honour of former Ilfracombe Historical Society president, Lynn Cameron, who was a large contributor of the machines sourced.
“Lots of the machinery seen at the museum is thanks to him. There was no one who did more for the Ilfracombe Historical Society in the last 30 years than he did,” Forrest says.
“He was running a sheep property at the time, but it became a bit of a life’s endeavour for him to build the machinery collection.
“He was a great community man; he served on the Ilfracombe Shire Council and was one of those sorts of people that used his later years to do all he could for the Ilfracombe Historical Society.”
Standout exhibit
Ilfracombe has always been a little town, with a few hundred people at most, but Forrest says the Machinery Mile has helped put it on the map.
“I’ve often heard people say they remember Ilfracombe because of the main street that displays the Machinery Mile,” he says.
Since its beginning, the museum has provided free entry for keen visitors and makes a great spot for people to view a slice of the past.
“There’s many machines, some that are very small in terms of horsepower when you look at them now, and some pretty reasonable sized crawler tractors,” Forrest says.
“The Machinery Mile has been a gradual process since the late 1960s – it didn’t happen overnight.”
The museum can be found at Main Avenue, Machinery Mile, Ilfracombe and can be viewed online at www.ilfracombehistorical.au