‘Look how far we have come’: Farming history put on display at Newdegate Machinery Field Days

Wally Newman has a real love of the Lanz Bulldog that has become synonymous with the Newdegate Machinery Field Days.

He believes it is important to view the past and the progressive advances made in farming to “see how far we have come”.

Several pieces of Newdegate’s farming history will be put on display at this year’s event, after Wally and his mate Rusty Lee gave the 1920s Lanz, 1940 and 1945 Fordson tractors, a twin disc plough and other items a new lease on life.

The Lanz Bulldog, 1945 and 1947 Fordson tractors and a 1950s Shearer twin disc plough were used on different farms, but all are a far-cry from the latest precision agriculture use by WA grain farmers today.

During the past 50 years, the Lanz Bulldog has become an icon of the town and is also the logo for and a centrepiece of the annual Newdegate Machinery Field Days event.

Normally stored in a shed at the Field Days site, it is always put on display near the Newdegate Indoor Recreation Centre at each year’s Field Days for patrons to marvel and appreciate.

The German-built icon is considered the first tractor in Newdegate after spending much of its working life at farming pioneer Charlie Hill’s Lake Magenta property.

Wally and Rusty fired the tractor up at the 2019 event for the first time in three years and said the Lanz outlined agricultural machinery’s rich history.

The pair restored the Lanz as members of Newdegate’s Junior Chamber of Commerce group, in time for the 1972 event, before operating it at the Newdegate Machinery Field Day in 1973.

The Jaycees were a leadership training and civic organisation for people between the ages of 18 to 40, who organised debating, local dances and fundraising for various projects in the community.

Being tasked with fixing the Lanz Bulldog was no mean feat.

“It wouldn’t drive, it wouldn’t start, and the gear box had a fault,” Mr Newman said.

“We pulled it apart and found five rivets sheared off on one of the maim drive cogs, we replaced them with high tensile bolts and that was all that was required to fix it.”

The Lanz was painted “battleship grey” a few years later and spent decades towing an old wagon and giving joy rides to children at the Field Days before being retired to a shed at the Field Days oval.

To start the Lanz, operators have to pull the steering wheel out, put it into the flywheel and heat up the hot bowl at the front with a petrol blow torch for up to half an hour.

In 1983, local farmer Jack Kane sold his Newdegate farm and the Jaycees also bought his 1945 Fordson tractor which was army green. The colour was due to the WW11 effort.

With a worm drive in the back end and at just 30 horsepower (compared to today’s 600-plus horsepower machines), they changed the engine oil and planned to repaint and restore it in the future.

“We had plans to paint it one day, and that ‘one day’ turned into a few months and then 39 years,” Wally said.

“We now have it ready for the 100th year celebration.”

Also restored is a 1947 Fordson that once belonged to Charlie Trevelyan and Bill Goodge, and a Shearer twin disc plough and seeder combine that once belonged to Magenta farmer Graham Millsteed and is now on display near the Museum on the main street.

All four of the pieces of machinery will be on display at this year’s Field Day – a move Wally said was important to showcase “how they did it in the early days”.

They will also be put on show at the town’s centenary celebrations on September 24.

“The tractors are primitive by today’s standards, there were no cabs, air conditioners, radios, various monitors or GPS guidance system, they were just basic tractors, with steel or rubber wheels, which was a lot better than a horse you had to give a rest regularly and feed them whether you used them or not,” Wally said.

“I am really looking forward to getting all of the machinery there so it is presentable,

I think a lot of people will come just to see the old machinery.”

It’s a sentiment Rusty, who was also a member of the Newdegate Jaycees, shares.

“It is important because if you don’t restore some of the past, people don’t understand what it was like back then and how hard they worked to achieve what we do today in comfort in a fraction of the time” he said.

The Newdegate Machinery Field Days will be held September 7 and 8.