VINTAGE Tractor and Machinery Association of WA (Tracmach) members have raised a further $23,400 towards the Carnamah big tractor project with a raffle of donated machines.
But that still leaves the big tractor committee up to $100,000 short of "locking in" the building of a five times larger than life size - 11.5 metres high, 16m long and 8.5m wide - steel replica of a Chamberlain Model 40K tractor, according to committee chairman and local farmer Brendon Haeusler.
He said the committee was also "still more than $150,000 short of what we need to complete the project".
Mr Haeusler said the committee in February had asked the company which supplied a quotation to build the replica of $550,000 in December 2021, for an updated quote.
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"(The price) has gone up just over $100,000 from the last quote due to increases in steel and labour prices," Mr Haeusler said.
"We (committee) are in the process of applying for a number of smaller community grants - $10,000 or under - and also a couple of larger grants that are coming up," he said.
Last year an anonymous Carnamah local donated $100,000 to the big tractor tourist attraction project, but the committee missed out on a hoped-for $300,000 Federal government grant.
As previously reported, the local council has selected a site in the centre of Carnamah - which is also home to Hal Walton's Tractor Museum with 76 restored tractors on display and many more waiting to be restored - for the big tractor project.
Displayed under cover alongside the giant replica will be a refurbished real 1949 Chamberlain Model 40K, donated by Gnowangerup tractor, farm machinery and vintage car collector Dick Garnett.
Information boards about both will explain the local heritage of Chamberlain tractors built in Welshpool, their importance to agriculture in WA and the prime role the Model 40K played in helping clear and open up new farming country in the 1950s and 60s.
First prize in the latest raffle run by Tracmach for members was won by Narrogin collector Les Kilpatrick who added the 1970s Chamberlain C670 tractor with front-end loader bucket and three-point linkage prize, valued at $8000, to his collection.
Mr Kilpatrick has about 15 tractors, mainly Field Marshalls and Lanz Bulldogs in his collection.
Former Tracmach president, Brett Green, Tambellup, won second prize valued at $5000 and chose the option of two John Deere Model D tractors - John Deere's longest running model produced from 1923 to 1953 - with enough parts to complete one restored tractor.
Mr Haeusler said Mr Green had been Tracmach president for nine years before current president John Piavanini and his collection of about 25 restored and unrestored tractors included a 1950s Field Marshall, a German Hannomag, Farmall H, International TD-6 crawler and a 1928 John Deere purchased at the Three Springs dispersal of the extensive Illingworth tractor collection last year.
Third prize of a 1936 Case L Model tractor valued at $5000 was won by Tracmach life member and former long-serving secretary, Ken McIllree, Collie, who collects old tractors and stationary engines.
With its twin-cylinder, horizontally-opposed petrol/kerosene engine producing 31 kiloWatts, a nine speed transmission and weighing about four tonnes, the Model 40K, the Carnamah big tractor project is based on, was the first locally-built tractor produced by brothers Bob and Bill Chamberlain.
In 1970 John Deere purchased a controlling interest in Chamberlain Industries and the last Chamberlain tractor was produced in 1986.
