Recently I had a look through some of my grandmother’s photos that included several of the cars, trucks, tractors and motorcycles from my grandfather’s life. Many I remember but some, like the truck above, I can’t quite nail down. The photo above is from 1947, and I think the truck is a 1938 Chevrolet – the grille has lost a few teeth! I can only guess that getting down from the stack of hay on the truck involved climbing on the cab roof.
My grandfather grew up near Ravenswood, roughly 80 miles northwest of Melbourne, Australia and 10 miles south of Bendigo. Another 1947 photo shows the team of horses on the family farm – never mind rare Curbside Classics, this is really something you don’t see much any more.
Here is my grandfather on a motorbike I can’t identify. I remember a story he told about when the water bailiffs (who supervised irrigation usage) swapped from bicycles to motorbikes, the amount of water used by farmers declined significantly – they could hear them coming miles away and get rid of whatever was stopping the water wheels that measured water use.
My grandparents were married in 1951, after my grandfather had moved to Roslynmead, in the north of Victoria. Here are my grandmother and my mother in front of their Standard Vanguard (1948-1952) – which is understandably not the focus of the photo!
I’m glad this wasn’t me. This is 1952 and this Fordson Major tractor was bogged while digging a dam, and bogged hard – the back wheel closest to camera is deep enough, let alone the other one. Not everything went completely uneventfully! I don’t know how long it took to get it out, but there was plenty of time for someone to come with a camera. I know that they still used horses at this time for jobs that didn’t need a tractor (they would have been cheaper to run!) because Uncle Fred told me a story of another mishap involving one.
Also in 1952 is possibly the first load of wool from the new farm. The description says the wool was headed for Melbourne, and the drums are to bring a load of petrol back. I think it is an early postwar Ford truck, but I’m not completely sure.
Here is another photo from the new farm, the brothers on the Fordson tractor and a harvester (can’t remember the make sorry). I don’t remember seeing either of these machines, but Grandpa did have another towed harvester in later years, an International 511. The crop looks fairly light compared to modern times, but no doubt grain species have improved since then and it may just have been a poor year. Average annual rainfall for the area is around 16″ (420mm).
On a more domestic front, here is my mother again in 1953 aged about 18 months, in front of a 1950 Ford. The note on the back of the photo does not say who the other person was.
At the end of 1953 there is now one of the new FJ Holdens in shot, this time my mother is pictured with her grandmother and great-grandmother.
Now we are in 1954 and this time my mother with my grandfather’s sister Daisy and her son Alf in front of the new Ford truck – or at least I assume so. Clearly not much rear suspension movement was expected!
The last photo from the 1950’s is a Nuffield tractor in 1956 and still on the original part of the farm, although by now my grandfather had bought another property about 10 miles away. This shearing shed still exists (CC contributor Brad may remember it), although I doubt it has seen a sheep for decades. It never had mains electricity, so the shearing plant was generator-powered and wool bales were compressed manually, at least before they were taken to the main shed.
As a change of pace here is a shot of the Renmark Hotel from a family holiday in 1961. Renmark is on the bank of the Murray River in South Australia, 130 miles northeast of Adelaide, near where the Murray starts its run southwest to the sea. How many of the cars can you identify? The hotel is unusual too, being owned by the community since being opened in 1897 after it was recognised that the town being officially “dry” wasn’t working. At the time of the photo it had the longest bar in the southern hemisphere, circling the bar room at a length of 62.4m or 205 feet!
Now we are in 1970 with my grandfather on what looks like a new Honda motorcycle, one of many he would own. My mother and aunts were riding them too – rather more adventurously than he appreciated! You can see the shovel mounted on the side, that he used when doing the rounds of the irrigation twice a day. I have one of his old shovels that has about 4″ worn off the blade.
This photo wasn’t dated and the only identification was the cat Lucky and dog Spot. It was pretty difficult to identify the ute here, as it looks older than the registration plate that was issued in about 1971. Unfortunately some of these pictures are pretty poor quality because they are print-outs of scanned photos.
Photo courtesy Wikipedia
After working my way through most of the Japanese manufacturers that were active in the 1960s, it turns out that this is a Daihatsu Compagno ute, which according to available information were built until 1969; the one above is a 1971, according to the NSW registration authority – so perhaps there was a delay in selling them in Australia or stocks lasted for a while? They had a 1,000 cc engine with about 55 hp, a 2.22m (87.4″) wheelbase and overall length about 3.8m / 150″. I dare say this is comparable to a side-by-side utility vehicle today, but with better weather protection and top speed. Load capacity is 500kg or half a (long) ton. It is interesting that Grandpa used small Japanese utes/pickups for so long; also lucky Grandpa was not that tall, around 5’6″.
Now we are on to the first picture of me near the end of the 1970s – just! The crop looks too young to be Christmas time, but it is not an ordinary day as these aren’t Grandpa’s normal farming clothes.
Now we are in 1980 and my sister is on the scene too, and we are on an Ariens BM1030 ride-on mower. The model number is fairly descriptive, as it has a 10hp engine and a 30” wide cutting deck. I spent quite a few hours on this in later years.
This photo seems to be from 1983, with one of my cousins and our Pomeranian dog (caught mid-scratch) in my grandmother’s garden on the farm. As is typical in these parts, there was a fenced yard around the house within the ‘home’ paddock, which kept the sheep out of her treasured garden and young children in. Incidentally the tricycle is still around and being ridden, although it isn’t quite as shiny now.
This one wouldn’t be too much later, my sister again on a Honda CT110 ag bike which is a variation of the legendary Cub. My grandpa had a sequence of these because they are very quiet and didn’t disturb his sheep, making it easier to herd them. As far as I can remember I only crashed one once! Behind is the garage my grandmother parked her 1980-ish Ford Fairlane in, and the water tanks (one up on the stand) – no mains water here, just electricity.
I was glad to find these next few photos, of Grandpa’s International Acco truck. I don’t remember how old the truck was exactly, but I am guessing somewhere around the 1966-72 range. It is powered by the 345 V8, and originally had an 18 foot tray which Grandpa extended to 20 feet. He also had a quite versatile stock crate which had two decks for transporting sheep, with the upper deck folding up to the sides to cater for cattle. I remember helping him lift it off the truck with a high-lift jack to suspend it from the roof trusses in the shed behind the truck in this photo, when he wanted to use the flat tray.
Here are a couple more bales being loaded with his International Superloader, which was a dedicated loader that was essentially a reversed AW6 tractor and built around the same time as the truck, late-’60s. I think Grandpa had that for use in his sand pit – not a playground, but a commercial-type operation. To use it as a forklift like this he cut two holes in the back of the bucket (just visible in the photo) and attached a couple of pieces of railway track with the bottom flange cut off the front section. Mind you, a dedicated forklift-type attachment was available, but with its longer home-made tines I wonder if Grandpa’s version worked better for lifting wool bales or large round hay bales.
Here is the front of the truck with the loader on the back (I don’t think the loader was road-registered), at the front of the same shed. The military origins of the Acco are evident; as in the cab has been ‘constructed’ rather than styled! Behind the power pole at right an old truck can just be seen; I remember that and another one sitting in the yard that looked like a 1920s model with an old-style radiator that looked like it had been there for decades.
Here is Grandpa’s Fiat 1180 tractor, that would have been new in 1984, which had a 5.5L 115 hp 6-cyl diesel engine. In an echo of the earlier photo, I remember this tractor got bogged when Grandpa decided to take a shortcut and drive through an irrigation channel. Luckily a neighbour’s tractor (large 4×4 type) was available to pull it out. Perhaps he should have bought the 4WD aka front-wheel-assist version!
This picture was found on the internet
This tractor had an unusual transmission with 3 groups of 4 gears that were selected using two levers that were like column-shifts, sprouting from either side of the steering wheel. He had a few other tractors that I can remember, a Massey Ferguson 135, some variety of “grey Fergie” (aka Ferguson TE20) and a Fiat that looked pretty similar.
This photo is from 1986 and shows the interior of the red Acco truck, very much function over form. I remember the seats having dozens of holes eaten into the foam by mice. My youngest sister is sitting on the engine cover between the two seats and it looks like one of the kelpie dogs is in there too, probably ready to take a load of sheep to the sale yards.
This is that truck’s replacement, photographed in about 1988–a newer (secondhand) International Acco, with Grandpa and my cousin. I think it was a 1980 model – these trucks were built from 1972 and the same basic cab is still in production today. It had a 14 tonne (almost 31,000 lb) GVM with the tare being about half that, a 20 foot hydraulically-tipping tray and was powered by a Neuss D358 6-cyl diesel engine of about 130 hp, 5-speed gearbox and 2-speed diff, which restricted top speed to 50 mph.
That wasn’t a huge issue when most trips would have taken place within a 20 mile radius; indeed, one of the reasons why he bought a secondhand truck in the first place. This photo is likely before or after one of the longer trips, taking just a few sheep to or from my aunt’s small acreage just north of Melbourne with a few panels of his portable sheep yards in place of the usual stock crate.
I found this photo of a very similar truck; apart from a few details it could almost be the same one. The main difference is that the tray is shorter, but the stock crate is similar with a folding upper deck.
Grandpa’s last vehicle was this Subaru Brumby ute, from 1994, bought after he found out that they were going out of production. I can tell this photo was from when the ute was new because it doesn’t have Grandpa’s signature blue terry-cloth seat covers fitted yet! He invariably got a new set for his birthday (or was it Christmas?) because that was about how long they took to wear out. It does have the chrome strips removed from around the bed and lengths of angle steel fitted, which did a much better job of protecting things and had tie-down hooks welded on. This was transferred from his previous Brumby ute and another example of how he adapted vehicles to better suit his needs. He also had a set of pipe racks (as in made from heavy-gauge water pipe) and a stock crate for it.
This doesn’t represent all the vehicles in my grandfather’s life, even just within my memory span there have been a couple of Ford Fairlanes (arguably my grandmother’s cars), another Subaru Brumby and at least one Suzuki Sierra (aka Samurai) ute as well as the other tractors and motorbikes already mentioned. I remember pointing out that there was some wheat growing a foot or two tall in the back of the Suzuki and promptly being given the job of cleaning it out!
I’ve enjoyed this trip down memory lane, and I hope you have too.
What a great posting. Really enjoyed seeing the pictures and thinking about the stories those photos hide. Regarding the Subaru what is the plastic looking covering coming from atop the hood to the front bumper. It looks like maybe a windscreen or some sort. Thanks again.
I would guess that it is a screen to keep bugs out of the radiator.
Correct, woven glass fibre mesh aka flywire here (for a screen door). Also to try to keep grass seeds out of the radiator too, I remember once when the Subaru was overheating and the AC condenser and radiator were both jammed solid with them.
A few years ago there was a locust plague and most cars on the road had some flywire on the front.
Correct, woven glass fibre mesh aka flywire here (for a screen door). Also to try to keep grass seeds out of the radiator too, I remember once when the Subaru was overheating and the AC condenser and radiator were both jammed solid with them. Driving through long grass or crops was a common thing.
A few years ago there was a locust plague and most cars on the road had some flywire on the front.
Correct. Woven glass fibre mesh aka flywire here, used for screen doors. It was also used to keep grass seeds out, but wasn’t completely effective because I remember the Subaru overheating once due to the radiator and AC condenser being jammed full of seeds.
A few years ago there was a locust plague that saw most cars on the road with flywire draped over the front.
Water conservation interests me, but I’ve never heard of a Water Bailiff before. From the context one can guess a little, but could someone give some legislative background?
In a dry country, irrigation water needs to be carefully allocated. The bailiff makes sure everyone is using no more than their allotted share.
At the state level, the State Rivers and Waters Commission was represented locally by a water bailiff, “bailiff” meaning it’s most literal here as he was the “keeper” of the waters. He monitored usage from the water channels (they have a waterwheel device with a sort of counter), and had to maintain the channels too. Each bailiff had responsibility for about 80 small-ish farms.The SRWC managed irrigation schemes overall. Apart from wheat, beef, wool and (most) dairy farming, all other major crops in Aus rely on irrigation schemes. This gigantic continent is incredibly dry, just two main river systems, and if you saw either, they ain’t the Mississippi.
John’s grandad, er, shall we say, bending the rules on usage, is representative of an issue that’s been here for 130 years, as has the dislike of the enforcers. For example, in 2013, federally, the govt put together a $13 billion scheme between five states to buy back water rights along the two river systems so that environmental/survival flows could come back a little for river health, but it is being utterly rorted by large scale irrigators, who jam the measuring devices, create huge holding dams on their land, and threaten real violence against any inspectors. They appear to be well-protected politically, leaving the modern day equivalent of the bailiff on their own.
White mans way of living is very precarious in this country. Such a way of existing is predicated on far more lush conditions than exist anywhere other than the coastal fringes here, the fringes where we all live and forget that farming even just 150 miles inland from Melbourne (as in this post) is hard and reliant on man-made schemes that have already stretched the environment beyond it’s limits.
I hasten to add that I’m not in any way having a go at your grandad, John. I don’t live in the bush, I don’t really know the struggles. I do know that govt departments can get things like allocations horridly wrong, and I do know that local officials with a lot of power can be pompous arses.
I can’t say I’m an expert, but you have certainly touched on the big issues. I think further up the system, up the Darling River in particular is where the excessive usage happens, eg rice and cotton growing.
I wonder what the environmental experts are trying to achieve, when before the locks and wiers where built 100-120 plus years ago the rivers basically dried up each summer. Every few years there was a flood that gave the river red gums a good drink – not sure if that is what they want?
A lot of dairy farms in particular around this area sold off part of their water rights when things were tough during the drought, and are really struggling to recover even years later.
In any case Grandpa’s first farm didn’t (& doesn’t) have irrigation, and later had the water bailiff living half a mile up the road. I don’t think his farming was particularly water intensive, running sheep and some beef cattle. He grew cereal crops on the dry original farm.
Thanks Justy, very informative. Reliable water is the sine qua non of developed societies. Here in the US Southwest, the Colorado River is the big conservation issue, and Feather River water (CSWP) has been a sore spot for Southern vs. Northern California for generations now. I think more drought-resistant crops, like the natives cultivated for centuries with the Tepary Bean (which tastes as good as any other), is one solution, but grower and buyer acceptance for such is another matter, short of very strong price/tax incentives.
I believe that the very first motorcycle pictured is a BSA, possibly a 350cc single.
Thanks George.
350 or 500cc. You were talking the same cylinder on both, just the bore was different. And the front fork has me thinking late 1930’s. After the war, the immediate bikes for sale from BSA and Triumph were pre-war bikes with hydraulic forks. Before the war it was hardtail and girder forks. Plunger rear suspension would make it mid-50’s.
If it’s a 350, it’s a B31. A 500, it’s a B33.
The second bike (the Honda) is one of the Dream series (the one’s with the pressed steel frame, pressed steel leading link forks, and deeply valanced fenders), but I can’t figure what sized engine from the angle shown. Most likely a 160cc, possibly a 250 or 305.
CT Hondas are common as postie bikes in OZ the ag versions had a dual range gearbox. CT 90 was 90cc CT110 was 110cc they were still in production recently for Australia Post single range letter delivery bikes.
I think Syke was referring to the earlier bike.
At one time Grandpa had a CT110 plus a 110 in a 90 frame which was apparently a bit smaller and the one us grandkids started on, put into low range. I only remember crashing once, nearly ended up in the irrigation channel!
What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
Thanks for sharing this. Great old snapshots.
Thank you so much for this tour of your grandpa’s farm. The adapted wool and hay bale loader and the temporary sheep pen on the back of the newer Acco reminds me of all the ingenious, and analogous, solutions to farming problems that my Dad and uncles came up with-the snow fence used to herd feeder pigs from the farrowing to finishing shed, the sheet of plate steel attached to the front of the loader to “bull-doze” silage around atop the pit; the 3-point-hitch rock puller welded up from some plow frames and cultivator shares. Many a farm boy grew up around such ingenuity and then went off to the agricultural college to become a mechanical engineer. That stuck tractor may have caused frustration and use of colorful language at the time, but also would have been the source of many a good story.
Great post!
Whenever I have the chance, I like to ask farm families about the “retired” vehicles scattered around the farm. Always a great source of stories—many folks are just as sentimental about trucks & equipment as previous generations might have been about horses.
Also a neat glimpse of Australian farming—not so different from the Midwest of the U.S. in a lot of ways.
Thanks!
Thanks Iowahawk and Impalahawk, I think there are often similarities in how things work around the world
Pretty much. Except for the sheep! I remember lambs in a box in the basement with a heat lamp when the lambing season was really cold, but we didn’t have sheep for long. Just as well, I recall trying (unsuccessfully) to help herd some sheep at the sale barn one time, they pretty much ignored me. Needed that pig from the movie, “Babe.” Or your grandpa’s Border Collie.
Regarding those comments below about the “Bloody Farmers:” Pretty much spot on. What they complain about, constantly, is commodity prices and the weather. And the Government. And they wax on, as poetically as farmers can get, about the old equipment (we all miss our ’59 International and the ’65 Chevy). They may not dress for Saville Row, and they run their equipment into the ground and then winch it out and fix it. But, to be successful and stay in business, they have to pinch every penny. This is how, when they have a good year-when the stars are in alignment, and they have a bumper crop and prices are high-they can buy that Fairlane to keep Mom happy, and someday even take that trip. And they will come back home, happy to be back and ready to winch you out (actually, they use big bungee cords now, easier on the equipment) when you get stuck. And then share a couple beers. And complain some more about the Government…
Not to mention loans to purchase equipment (and the land if it is not inherited), a few years before the Fiat my uncle bought a harvester for $250k, and a 300hp Steiger. Allowed them to crop a lot more land, but need a few good years to pay for them!
Just so, to all that, Iowahawk. And I realised long ago I was jealous of their life, and also knew that I didn’t have the toughness for it. Also never stayed with a farmer, however curmudgeonly, who was less than generous.
I loved this. These shots remind me a lot of some of my grandmother’s old snapshots. They still had a pair of horses until well into the 1930s and never did own a truck on their northwest Ohio farm. Any hauling was by trailers towed by the family sedan.
Ah yes, I recall the shed. And the smell. There’s youthful enthusiasm for you!
And interestingly, many of the vehicles and scenes don’t look a heck of a lot different to some of the old photos from my family’s farm at Bamawn! But less wool, more dairy there.
Some great photos John!
Glad you saw it Brad.
For others, we bagged about 120 bags of sheep manure from under the shearing shed, there was about 40 years worth there!
I’m not sure that the ‘what’ sufficiently explains the ‘why’!
There’s a COAL for you mate, the trusty Urvan Venturer Bus…!
Oops I missed that part, to raise money for the Venturers bus. Not sure if I have any photos of that, I will have to go through my old photos.
I was explaining to my nephew at Christmas how cameras used to have film in them (and what film was!), and how you only had 24 shots to use until you paid to get the film developed, and only then saw what you had taken!
Some great shots, and a lot of wool too. More than three bags full for sure.
Since we don’t get horses too much at CC, my Dad’s first job in Canada was helping out on a nearby farm. One day he had to get the horse, as he was leading it away from the barn the horse figured out it was going to work, so it stopped and could not be pulled forwards.
So Dad turned the horse around as if to go back the to the barn, but continued 360 degrees and kept going. It took the horse a few minutes to figure out it was not going back to the barn and it would stop again. It took a few turns, but he got the horse out to the field.
That is a great story Doug!
Cars outside the Remark hotel are PAY vauxhall Velox, MK2 Ford Zephyr ute, EK Holden, something IO cant identify behind a FJ Holden, FC Holden, HUmber Hawk, Chrysler , and FE/C Holden side on in the foreground and thats all I can make out, older International truck is commonly referred to as a butterbox cab, Cool set of photos.
Sounds good to me Bryce. Lots of Holdens, I thought the Vauxhall was a Cresta but can’t disagree with you. I did recognise the Humber, pre 1958 and a Chrysler Royal.
A lovely post John, thankyou. Very evocative of stays in the country in my youth.
I had to look up Roslynmead, and laughed when I saw it’s just up the road from Bawmawm, where my cuz has had a small acreage for years. He had a ’60’s Fiat tractor that he sold for good money a few years back, because even at 50 years of age, they’re still in demand, which is not exactly how we normally think of Fiats! He sold it because the acreage had a bigger Russian 4wd tractor from the ’70’s, a 3cyl turbodiesel, whose hydraulics ultimately turned out to be unfixable. Apparently, there’s quite a number of these Belarus things around that area, (one would imagine some wheat-trade swap with the Soviets in the ’70’s), and apparently and surprisingly, they weren’t too bad in the day.
You’ve got all the country classics here, massively overloaded Acco (doubtless later blousing along at a good road-blocking 30mph), the Brumby, the unseen but obligatory Fairlane (bookies & estate agents in town, farmers in the bush), and as you foreshadowed recently, the inevitable early-adopter-because-it-was-cheap vile little Japanese knee-squasher ute that’s probably STILL farting on somewhere even now.
Bloody farmers. The arse out of their pants, the endless whinge about being broke, the weather’s never right, anything and everything used until it’s just a collection of their own welding surrounding a rust hole, yet always a newish Fairlane. And later, sudden all-expenses sojourns overseas. (“G’day from me and your mum in Paris, weather’s pretty crook, good for the crops I s’pose”). Oh well, good luck to them: I suppose the daily rectitude explains the other, really
I can smell oil, rope and damp dust in the pictures as I write. Wonderful stuff.
At a rough guess there is probably something like 6 ton of wool there so not necessarily overloaded, and the Acco would do 50 mph like most trucks of the time.
Grandma had a Fairlane from about 1980 for 12-13 years, they did have a trip to Europe in that time. Had the next one for many years too until it started giving some trouble. You may have noticed that there is a theme of getting full usage from everything…
The old Ferguson tractors, and others of the era, are definitely still easy to sell because they are so much easier to keep running than more sophisticated, but obsolete types. Note that includes Chinese tractors that aren’t that old! Of course tractors that small are more hobby type rather than serious working machinery.
That motorcycle looks like a a BSA that the water boys were using.
While Grandpa and Benjie caught some ZZZ’s at the hotel I loaded up on caffeine at Starbucks and headed back to track to catch a few hours of night racing. Exploring the banking with Grandpa before the start of the race The next morning we all returned to track to catch a couple hours of racing before calling it a weekend.