Historical Machinery Club Combined Rally brings vintage cars, trucks, tractors and engines to Bega district

The musk of linseed oil and turpentine lingered in the air; a concoction of liquids he used to protect and preserve the ironwork, original paint, and brass detailing from corroding in the sea breeze at his residence in Eden.

He is preparing a couple in anticipation of the Bega & District Historical Machinery Club Combined Rally on Saturday, October 7, which invites collectors and the public to an event showcasing engines, tractors, vintage cars and trucks.

A stationary engine is an engine that have framework that does not move and are instead used to drive pumps, factory machinery, and even run old dairies, while some can be portable with cart wheels allowing the same engine to be utilised for multiple jobs around the farm.

Through meticulous dedication each engine of John's has been carefully restored.

"You search to find if there's somebody else with a similar engine that you can photograph or go and measure, replicate in the lathe, you do the eBay for any parts in America that could be available, but the process is largely cleaning, de-rusting, and working from the ground up," he said.

"One part at a time."

Some of his collection were originally discovered while in full scuba kit having been submerged by farmers 30 years ago before being pulled from dams, others unearthed after being left forgotten on properties in the district, and his biggest engine was found at an auction in Candelo.

"I don't actually have the first one I picked up, I sold it off, I work in limited space as you can see," the 75-year-old said with a laugh, as he glanced around his two car garage filled to the brim with fishing rods and engine parts; his two loves.

"The first five to ten years of collecting, any engine that I found, I bought, and they turn out to be engines everybody else has got in the back of their shed, all the other collectors have got one.

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"So then I thought, hang on, I've got to start to find something that nobody else has got.

"Most of the engines that you see here are ones and twos in Australia, so I have gotten rid of a lot of that early stuff that I collected to make room for better stuff."

Pointing towards a dusty blue sheet in the centre of the garage, John said the engine underneath came from his uncle out in Warrnambool, Victoria, and required two trips to Naracoorte in South Australia to acquire the parts needed to rebuild the sentimental machine

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"I was happy to spend whatever it took, I had to spend a lot of money [on the engine]," John said, before he explained how some engines take years to rebuild and restore.

"When I say that took five years, while I was doing that I'm doing other things as well, and [it's] because a lot of your time is waiting for the postman. When you buy parts out of America, you've just got to sit back and wait for the postman to do his thing," he said.

"I do collect old shifting spanners as well..."

The inaugural Bega & District Historical Machinery Club Combined Rally is on at Bega Showground from 9am to 4pm on Saturday, October 7, and entry is via a gold coin donation.

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