VINTAGE items provided a blast from the past for farmers at the Landmark clearing sale at Gabbin last Tuesday.
Robert Clare and his wife Bev had their sentimental items up for grabs on their Purlieu Farms property, which they have sold.
Their next move is enjoying retired life in York – Robert’s son Stuart lives in the town, where his parents plan to live there on a small town block.
“York is hopefully somewhere it rains a bit more than here,” Mr Clare said.
Mr Clare, who is in his seventies, said it took two people to run the 8750 hectare farm and with Stuart away from the farm, the time had come to give it up.
Rusted vintage items such as a GL 250 Grister which went for $150 and a six inch (15cm) Grister that sold for $225 were some items that attracted bidding from vintage aficionados.
Other items that had a dark brown rust to their cast iron body included a set of Sunshine combine cast enders which sold for $340 and a ASCO scale with a nailed-on wooden frame, which sold for $10.
The history on this farm was enough to make any collector envious.
A wooden trolley, that resembled two wood railway sleepers with rusted metal wheels, sold for $300; a vintage sewing machine with a foot pedal stand went for $140 and an antique International grader that Mr Clare’s father used to maintain roads in and around Gabbin, sold for $900.
Landmark auctioneer Grant Lupton threw the hammer down on a 2003 Isuzu 385 tandem drive truck (150,000km), with a six metre (20ft) tray, hydraulics and a ring feeder, for $90,000, which was the top sale price.
Other machinery sold included a Nissan 2.5 tonne diesel Forklift ($5750); a New Holland TR88 header (3867 rotor hours, $3000); a Wespray R3650 36m (120ft) boomsprayer with a 5000 litre tank and twin lines ($70,000); a Morris 370 Eight Series XL air cart with a 3800L liquid injection tank ($74,000) and a 820 Flexi-Coil bar on 30 centimetre (12in) spacing and press wheels ($15,000).
A DE Engineers seed cleaner with attached storage and screens, went for $40,000 while a 5 metre (17ft) 35 tine International scarifier with finger harrows, in good condition, sold for $200.
Two unlicensed vehicles that had seen better days – a Daihatsu ute and a Triton ute – sold for $100 each.
Another big item of the day, and the last item in the machinery section, was an Ennor 28 series 96 plate offset disc that sold for $48,000.
A large ute sheep crate sold for $100 and a smaller crate, in an older condition, sold for $10.
A total of 10 tonnes of spreadable urea sold for $260/t, with 12,000 litres of Hitech black liquid urea selling for $1000 and 25t of DAP attracting $13,500 at $540/t.
Grain left in storage was also up for grabs with 12t of Mandalup lupins selling for $370/t and 20t of Durack/Williams oats selling at $150/t.
A graded 4t of wheat seconds sold for $50/t and 25t of graded Mace wheat sold for $200/t.
A pallet of 150cm (6in) new black steel posts, sold for $380, while a pallet of 165cm (6.5in) galvanised posts sold for $750.
A box of Ez-Steer equipment sold for $4600, with most GPS equipment topping the sundries sales.
Lambing cradles are hot property for anyone running sheep, and a five station lamb cradle, near new, was knocked down for $1700.
A small lambing cradle with a three station lambing cradle went for $100.
A TPW wool press went for $8000 with an AJAX press sold for $200.
Out of the 265 lots, 23 were passed-in and 50 per cent of those were household items such as ironing boards, old tins, apple glassware and a punch bowl.