Rare tractor collection up for auction after 40 years

When Greg Baker went to help out his father-in-law on his dairy farm in the State’s South West, he got more than just fresh air, early morning starts and a country lifestyle.

He also got the bug for collecting and restoring old tractors. Four decades later, Baker has more than 40 of them.

However, after a health scare and as his wife sells her share in the Burekup family farm — which now runs beef cattle — he has decided to move them on for others to enjoy.

It all started with an old wagon.

“I’m a chippy by trade so I thought ‘let’s restore that’,” Mr Baker said.

Pretty soon, he moved from horse-drawn gear to machinery, in the 1980s restoring his very first tractor.

“It was a 1942 Fordson which came from the Benger area...that got me the bug for tractors,” he said.

What followed next was decades travelling the countryside finding and purchasing old tractors from farms across the State; from Geraldton, Southern Cross, out through to Esperance, Albany and the South West.

The impressive collection — about half of which he has lovingly restored back to their former glory — includes early restoration tractors, working and unrestored tractors and incomplete tractors.

It features a range of Australian-made models, including a number of Chamberlains from the 1940s-mid 1960s, including the 40KA — the first model made — 45KA, 55TKA, 55DA and a set of tandem Super 70s.

Other models include a KL Bulldog, John Deere Lanz Model 440 JCDL traxcavator, Caterpillar Model RD8 and Caterpillar Model Cat 22. Mr Baker said it had already garnered overseas and interstate interest, as well as generating excitement in the local community, which he said had not had a sale like this “in years”.

A number of tractor engines, stationary engines, parts as well as horse-drawn gear and old ploughs and implements which could be given a new life as garden art or “Gardenalia” as Mr Baker called it, will also be auctioned.

“I’m trying to keep the lots down to 300,” he laughed.

Money from the sale of one of the tractors will also be donated to the local cricket club.

He hoped the machines would give someone else as much joy as they had given him, and that the passion he had for them flowed through to the next generation of farmers.

“Its time to move onto a different phase in our life... and another era,” Mr Baker said.

“It’s probably time for other people to have the opportunity to get into vintage gear and hopefully a lot of young people get into it and spread it again.

“You can’t collect it and keep it, you need to pass it on.

“My kids aren’t really interested in vintage gear so they’re happy for me to sell it and pass it on to other people for other generations and let’s keep it moving.”

As for what comes next, Mr Baker has his sights set on a different kind of machine.

“It’s time to buy the muscle car and buy a cup of coffee and relax for a change,” he laughed.

The auction — hosted by Elders — will take place in Burekup this Saturday November 6, starting at 9am.