Subhead: New life for old treasures
Precede: Anthony Wason’s Portarlington farm is like a miniature old-time museum. He speaks to Justin Flynn about his love of old machinery.
If it’s old and dusty, chances are Anthony Wason has something like it on his 150-acre Portarlington farm.
Anthony has packed a lot into his 50 years. He is a qualified chef, served with the army as a peacekeeper in Somalia, was in the police force for 19 years, including 13 with the critical response unit, and is now working with Telstra’s NBN and dabbles as a farmer.
But it’s the old machinery on his property that is his pride and joy. It’s almost like a mini old-time museum.
“If it’s old and dusty, I can’t help myself,” he says.
“I’m like a bowerbird, I have to have it. I’m like the graveyard for things nobody wants.”
An impressive array of vintage steam engines, cars and all sorts of hidden treasures have lovingly been picked up and transported to the farm where, one day, they will be restored.
One of the steam engines was owned by the Kelly family from Glenrowan.
“That’s an 1880s steam engine, one of the first ones probably even imported into Victoria,” Anthony says.
“It was owned and run by the Kelly family and it used to sit outside the Ned Kelly Museum in Glenrowan.
“Councils being councils 20 years ago told them that it was a hazard or a safety concern and they had to remove it, so it was sitting in a paddock for God knows how long and I couldn’t help myself, just because of the history behind it, and I picked it up and brought it home.
“I’ll try and restore it but it has a lot of cast iron and it’s very hard to repair cast. We might be able to do something with it at some stage, but it’s missing a lot of pieces, so it might be more a story to tell or something that sits there and looks good. Nobody wanted it.”
Anthony says the precision in which vintage engines were made is one of their most fascinating aspects.
“The Ned Kelly steam engine when I started doing that up, I had a fitter and turner come out to remove the tubes that ran down the centre of it and he said he couldn’t manufacture the tubes that we cut out with today’s technology with the precision that they did in the 1880s,” he says.
“It was all by hand. It’s pretty special.”
Anthony says the engine probably should have stayed at Glenrowan, but nobody had the time or the inclination to do anything with it.
“People who like this stuff are starting to get few and far between,” he says.
Then, there is a 1927 Model A Ford and a 1924 Bedford truck with a steel chassis and a timber cabin.
“It’s an old Sunshine Biscuit truck,” Anthony says.
“It used to do the rounds up and around Colac and came from the Western District and deliver all the biscuits to people.
“Restored it’s worth a quarter of a million dollars, but it’s going to cost me $150,000 to restore it back to its original beauty.
“There’s bugger all of them left in the world. It was found on a farm on Colac.”
A large steam machine that Anthony purchased in Echuca sits proudly restored.
“That’s a fairly good engine that’s won a few best-in-shows,” he says.
“It’s a working portable steam engine.”
In fact, Anthony says the Bellarine Peninsula’s agricultural history is unique.
“I think there’s more steam engines and traction engines and unique bits of machinery on the Bellarine than there is anywhere else in Australia,” he says.
“There’s a straw bailer that’s been down here for 160 years. It used to run on a steam engine and it’s still operational.
“One of my farmer mates has got it. His family settled on the Bellarine – the McDonalds – and they still have it in their possession.
“They have a father’s day event when they put on a do with all the vintage machinery and also at the Bellarine Show. You see it working there. It’s the only one left in the world. I like all that old stuff.
“There’s another guy just up the road from me, Graeme Brown. They’ve been down here all their lives … and he’s got probably seven or eight steam and traction engines and old saw mills and everything’s run on steam. They’re the blokes that got me interested in it.”
Anthony scours Facebook, auction sites and clearance sales for his treasure.
“When I see something that’s a little bit unique, I try to get it and possibly at some stage do something with it,” he says.
“It’s just a matter of finding time and finding the right people for me. I have a tinker with them all and I’m getting there.”
