A machinery master

The 89-year-old from Pinjarra is regarded as the Mr Fixit when it comes to bringing old machines back to life, something he has been doing for more than half a century.

The spritely bush mechanic is held in such high regard, that to this day, people are still knocking on his door to restore their old tractors - some that just need a freshen up and some that require a lot of elbow grease and old-school knowhow to bring them back to life.

The machinery museum, located at the rear of the historic Edenvale Homestead precinct in the middle of Pinjarra, is named after him.

It houses old tractors, stationary engines and a lot of other mechanical memorabilia that Roger has collected and restored over a long period of time – no matter where he was living or what job he was doing.

He started his working life on the family farm at Torbay, 20 kilometres west of Albany in the mid 1940s, growing potatoes and working with cattle on very hilly country that had its challenges.

A bushfire ripped through the area and destroyed most of what the family had owned and Roger said they struggled after that.

He then went to work for Kinnears at Albany, the local Ferguson tractor dealer at the time, servicing and delivering the popular Fergie tractors, but when he heard the business was struggling he sought a new direction.

After giving two weeks’ notice he moved to the Wheatbelt, taking over the school bus run at Bindi Bindi with a Comma bus.

Roger then relocated to gold mine town Westonia, 55km east of Merredin, doing the daily school bus run into Merredin in the early 1970s.

After talks with the Education Department of the time he moved again, this time to Pinjarra to do the daily school bus run to Dwellingup, 25km away.

The business expanded when Roger teamed up with another local to run four buses that not only serviced the school, but transported workers to the nearby Alcoa refinery.

The Alcoa contract ran for 25 years before Roger retired at the age of 65, freeing up more time for restoration projects.

The fascination for old machinery spurned from an early age after his dad had a 1928 Chev truck.

Roger’s early collection centred around vintage vehicles before he progressed to stationary engines that were initially housed on a farm just out of Pinjarra.

He would go out to the old dairy farm that used to host tours and start up the engines for visitors before the property was sold.

After talks with then Murray Shire president Noel Nancarrow, the engines were housed in the old horse stables at the Edenvale complex and from there the collection built momentum and the museum was developed.

It now houses a treasure-trove of old machinery, as well as the centrepiece - the 1938 Ruston 5VQB Stationary Diesel Engine that provided power at the nearby Fairbridge Village.

It took Roger two years to restore and he said it was the only known-operating example of its kind anywhere in the world.

“It came from Fairbridge, it was going to scrap and I managed to keep it,” Roger said.

Being keen on old machinery, it was not unusual for Roger to travel around the country, searching for the next project.

“I would hear that someone down at Brunswick Junction would have an engine and I would jump in the car and go and pick it up,” Roger said.

This was in the days prior to the internet, relying instead on word of mouth and local contacts.

“People would come in and have a look and say they have got something - this is how we started off,” he said.

According to son Darryl, Roger “was always a good talker”.

“When we would go away on holidays dad would always be talking to people and they would give him information on where the stuff was and off we would go again on another trip,” Daryl said.

The first tractor he restored was a 1946 grey Fergie and from there he has restored countless tractors that were part of his collection or for other people’s collections.

He still has about a dozen of them at his Pinjarra home, in the middle of town - some completely restored and some in various stages of rebuilds.

Connections that have been forged over a long period of time have proved invaluable for sourcing parts, both here in Australia or overseas - with many parts coming from the United Kingdom, United States or India.

“Dad has got his friends he can ask,” Darryl said of tracking down rare items.

“He may ask one friend, then that friend will go ‘I know someone who has got that’ and he then rings that friend up ... it’s word of mouth.”

The internet is Darryl’s domain and helps broaden the search area.

After the museum was up and running, ultimately it became too much for Roger to manage.

“My wife (Marie) got sick and was sick for about five years,” he said.

“I sold it to the council when ‘mum’ starting going down hill and I couldn’t do it anymore.

“When she was ill I was still trying to go down there (museum) every day when she was in a nursing home – it was a challenging time.”

Marie died in 2000.

Despite not being directly involved in the museum Roger still had the urge to keep collecting and restoring.

“People would come here and ask him to do stuff to keep himself occupied,” Darryl said.

“He loves being able to tinker with something and he loves it when something comes in dead and then it comes back alive.

“That’s one of his favourite things – when everyone else has worked on something and have given up and he can look at it and, bang, away it goes.

“They know he will get it running.

“Once he gets his mind onto something, you can’t stop him.

“He will stay down there (in the shed) for a week without moving out.”

Working on projects for other people means his own work goes on the backburner.

Roger said he didn’t get the chance to visit the museum much these days.

“I don’t have the time to go down there like I used to,” he said.

“I do some housework then somebody will come around and the day will be gone.”

That is of course if he doesn’t embark on another trip to track down bits and pieces.

“I don’t drive like I used to – I used to drive all over the place,” Roger said.

And historically a road trip often meant that he towed something home, something the rest of the family became used to.

“We have sort of given up a bit now,” Darryl said of his dad’s adventures.

“As long as he is happy, that’s the main thing.

“We worry about him a bit, but we let him go and do what he wants.”

I suspect Roger, who will be 90 on September 23, will be tinkering for quite some time yet – a view that is shared by Darryl.

“Dad can’t sit down for more than an hour, he has to be doing something,” he said.

When I arrived at his Pinjarra home for the interview he was out the front watering the pot plants and tending to the garden - and had parked some of his tractors on the front lawn for a photo shoot.

A couple of hours later when I left him I knew exactly where he was headed – down to the back shed to get his hands dirty again.

In conclusion, the question begs, why old tractors?

“We were brought up with them and we know how much of a struggle it was buying that first tractor,” Roger said.

“It is also about trying to keep a bit of the old stuff for the young ones”.

“....everything is chucked out now.

“It’s a bit of fun to keep the old history going.”

And what would he be doing if he wasn’t restoring tractors?

“I don’t know,” was the simple response.”