One of Australia’s oldest and rarest collections of earthmoving machinery provides visitors with a nostalgic stroll into the past
In the small rural town of Ilfracombe, central Queensland, there is a museum that showcases some of Australia’s rarest and oldest 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 for all to enjoy.
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 earthmoving equipment, including graders, crawler tractors, bulldozers and much more.
Considering the rarity and age of the machines, with some dating back more than 100 years ago, it’s amazing that almost all of the machines have been collected within 200km of the town – purely through voluntary work by Ilfracombe residents.
Martin Forrest, who was an Ilfracombe Historical Society committee member for more than 40 years and is the 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 was built by 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 Forrest says many machines were just lying around, having been replaced by newer versions.
Luckily enough, many 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.
However, Forrest says it was still a significant effort to re-paint the equipment and get it back into its original condition.
Once the museum gained prominence, people started donating their own machinery to expand it even further.
“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 to 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 the information is available, these plaques provide the machine’s age, use, donor and other fascinating facts from its past.
One of the most intriguing earthmoving machines in the collection is a large steam-powered excavator known as Steam Devil.
Steam Devil was made in Sydney in 1880 and sold two years later for £1,000. The museum states: “It would be safe to say that this excavator is the only remaining one of its kind.”
Powered by a 3hp (2.2kW) steam engine, the excavating machine was originally used for dam building and is estimated to weigh between 13.5 and 18 tonnes.
Caterpillar’s first grader series made in 1935 is another highlight of the collection. Its plaque says it worked on building a new road through Tambo, QLD, during WWII, having finished in Darwin and surviving the Japanese air raids. Featuring a 12ft blade, the grader is claimed to be the first series D6 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.
Another machine that was prominent during WWII and now features at the museum is a 12-tonne Stuart Tank, which has been cleverly re-engineered into a bulldozer.
Its plaque says these 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. The Stuart Tanks were modified by removing the turrets and replacing them with dozer blades, reselling for £500 each in the early 1950s.
“Machinery came in cheap after the second World War and I think some of the graziers realised that these tanks had potential to knock down shrub to feed livestock in drought years,” Forrest says.
“Those tanks were the forerunner of today’s bulldozers.”
Lynn Cameron
The Machinery Mile is named in honour of former Ilfracombe Historical Society president Lynn Cameron, who contributed many of the machines in the museum.
“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 just a couple of hundred people at the 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 Machinery Mile has provided free entry for keen visitors and makes a great spot for people to view a slice of the past.
“There’s many earthmoving 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 60’s – it didn’t happen overnight.”
The museum can be found at Main Avenue, Machinery Mile, Ilfracombe. For more information visit www.ilfracombehistorical.au