A RARE restored example of the first internal combustion-engine agricultural machine recognised as a tractor, which recently sold for an Australian record price of $375,000, will stay in Australia.
Robbie Richards, of Donington Auctions, Melbourne, organiser of the international online, phone and onfarm auction at Arrino, near Three Springs, of the Illingworth family's collection of 150 vintage tractors, tractor parts, stationary engines and agricultural collectables, confirmed the 1904 Ivel Agricultural Motor will remain here.
The 322 lots also included some rare and unusual pre-1980s tractors, a 1928 Dennis fire engine from Southern Cross and a World War II era Stuart M3 Fort Knox military tank.
"When we were preparing for the auction, we contacted the relevant government authorities to check whether an overseas buyer would need to obtain an export licence to take it out of Australia and whether the inclination would be to issue an export licence for it," Mr Richards said of the vintage Ivel.
"We were told it was unlikely an export licence would be issued.
"The auction attracted a lot of international interest, particularly from Europe.
"So we had to discourage overseas bidders from bidding on the Ivel, because they were unlikely to be able to take it out of the country."
Local collectors were angered by a 2020 sale of a 1912 Imperial EB Model tractor made by Australia's first tractor manufacturer, AH McDonald, from Richmond, Victoria.
The Imperial was sold for $283,000 to a private collector at an auction in the United States and subsequently exported from Australia to the US, prompting local collectors to petition the Federal government for its repatriation.
Tractor enthusiasts and collectors argued that under the Moveable Cultural Heritage Act 1986, it should not have been granted an export licence - a licence was issued when it was lumped in with other less significant export applications.
Ironically, that tractor had previously been sold and exported to a British collector, but the government had intervened on that occasion and forced its return to Australia.
The situation with the Ivel was different, in that the Ivel was not made here so had no local engineering or manufacturing heritage, Mr Richards said.
About 650 people registered to bid on the Illingworth collection items, with close to half of them attending on September 25, at the supershed John and Sue Ilingworth built on their Arrino cropping and sheep property to house their collection, Mr Richards said.
He said the buyer of lot 48, the Ivel, serial number 352 and recognised as one of the most complete and original of the remaining nine units still in existence around the world, was one of several bidders competing for it online and by phone.
He was a "local" collector who wanted to remain anonymous, Mr Richards said.
The Ivel was recognised by a deal er and salvaged from a scrap metal yard near Perth for the price of 12 pounds 10 shillings (equivalent of $30) before it passed from another collector in 1981 to the Illingworths, who meticulously restored it to working condition
While Mr Richards said he was sure the Ivel would remain in Australia, he could not reveal whether it would remain in Western Australia.
"Because at this level, the serious tractor-collecting fraternity is so small in each State, nominating whether the Ivel is going to another State would be tantamount to identifying who has bought it," Mr Richards explained.
Apart from the Ivel 352 restored by the Illingworths, another private WA collector is understood to have two Ivel Agricultural Motors with unknown serial numbers - one is possibly serial 354 - which are either incomplete or substantially reconstructed, background notes prepared by Donington for the auction indicated.
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A New South Wales collector has one reconstructed from parts found in a paddock and Forbes Historical Museum, NSW, has an intact example restored by museum volunteers, the notes said.
The 24 horsepower, horizontally-opposed 2.9 litre twin-cylinder, single forward and reverse speed, chain-drive, three-wheel agricultural machine - the word tractor was not generally adopted commercially until 1906 and first gained acceptance in America - was patented by its English inventor Dan Albone in 1902.
Some 480 (Ivel serial numbers started from 100) were built and sold commercially between 1904 and 1914, with at least 12 machines believed to have come to Australia before World Wwar I.
Ivel number 352 has a much wider than usual roller front wheel and broad steel rear wheels with unusual diagonal treads, suggesting it may have been specified for road use rather than agricultural use, Donington's auction catalogue noted.
It is possible it was ordered by a government department or local council for road work, the catalogue said, but no records to confirm this have been found.
"The reason there is such an interest from Europe in these early machines here is that they no longer exist over there," Mr Richards said.
"In Britain, for example, many old machines from all sorts of industries including agriculture, were sold off for scrap metal to help with the war effort during WWII.
"There's usually a lot of emotion involved in serious collecting - machinery collectors can often recall seeing a particular machine that struck a chord with them when they were young or someone they knew owned one, so in later life they want to find one and own it themselves."
Mr Richards said the previous highest price paid in Australia for a historic tractor was $215,000 for a 1914 Marshall Colonial oil tractor sold at a Dalby, Queensland, vintage machinery auction in August last year.
Sale of the Illingworth collection, accumulated over more than 50 years, netted $1.1 million for the family, he said.
Sue Illingworth, 75, who had shared her husband's passion for collecting and restoring, said she and daughters Sarah and Emma had decided to sell the collection because it was becoming too difficult to maintain without John, who died five years ago, aged 92.
"I was finding that it was more difficult now to turn the engines over to keep them alive (many have to be hand cranked), to slide underneath to change the oil or to climb up into the driver's seat, even though I'm still pretty active for my age," Ms Illingsworth said.
"We've had years and years of fun out of them - finding them, pulling them out of sheds and digging them out of paddocks, bringing them back here in bits and restoring them and showing them and talking about them to other collectors and people who are interested in old tractors, who came to see them," she said.
"But we really couldn't do them justice any more.
"So we're happy they are going to other people who will care for them and restore the ones that we didn't get around to restoring - they will continue to provide enjoyment to others."
Ms Illingsworth said she was particularly pleased Ivel 352 was staying in Australia.
"That one John did (restored) pretty much on his own, I just provided the tea and cake to keep him going on it," she said.
Ms Illingworth said her husband had been an innovative farmer in Lancashire and Yorkshire, before coming to Australia in 1969 and establishing the Arrino farm.
Their families knew each other and she visited him here several times before they were married in 1978.
While her husband had no formal engineering training, he had a keen interest from a young
age in technology and how machines worked and had a natural mechanical aptitude, Ms Illingsworth said.
He also had friends who were engineers who were happy to advise him on problems he encountered restoring old tractors, she said.
