{"id":790293,"date":"2026-07-10T00:39:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/790293\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T00:39:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:39:21","slug":"ilfracombes-machinery-mile-grows-as-20th-century-tractors-arrive-from-state-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/790293\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilfracombe’s Machinery Mile grows as 20th century tractors arrive from state museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the heart of Queensland’s outback, a blue-and-white semi-trailer from Brisbane is bringing critical and treasured supplies to a tiny town.<\/p>\n

But its trailer is not carrying food, animal feed or perishables \u2014 but four almost 100-year-old tractors.<\/p>\n

The prized antique payload, sent from Queensland Museum, came as a delight to the smiling group who had perched outside the pub to meet the new additions to their Machinery Mile.<\/p>\n

\"two<\/p>\n

The Machinery Mile collection has grown to 190 pieces of industrial and farming equipment. (ABC Western Qld: Jay Carstens)<\/p>\n

The community of Ilfracombe pours its efforts into preserving the wagons, trucks and bulldozers that have helped farm and build Australia.<\/p>\n

Over the years the Ilfracombe Historical Society has amassed 190 machines along its main street, a number that could soon overtake the town’s population.<\/p>\n

\"drone<\/p>\n

The Machinery Mile runs the length of Ilfracombe, beside the Landsborough Highway. (ABC Western Qld: Jay Carstens)<\/p>\n

The open-air display, founded in 1969, stretches 800 metres so far, running almost the full length of the town.<\/p>\n

Dubbed the Lynn Cameron Machinery Mile, it serves as a landmark for those travelling the Landsborough Highway.<\/p>\n

The recent delivery was of four historical Caterpillar tractors, a 1950s D2 and three 1930s Twenty-Twos, once the cherished possessions of an Australian earthmoving tycoon.<\/p>\n

\"footpath<\/p>\n

The old machinery has become a landmark for those travelling through the west. (ABC Western Qld: Lachlan Ford)<\/p>\n

A nod to Ifracombe’s wool boom<\/p>\n

The vehicles along Machinery Mile provide a glimpse of the region’s past as a major international player in wool production.<\/p>\n

The nearby railway stop was built to service Wellshot Station, considered the largest sheep station in the world by headcount at the turn of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

“We’re kind of doing the deeds of our forefathers in preserving this history,” Ilfracombe Historical Society treasurer Mick Storch said.<\/p>\n

“It’s engaging and family-friendly in the sense that it doesn’t cost you anything to actually walk around and have a look and be amazed at the history.”\"man<\/p>\n

The tractors will be kept in storage until a suitable shed can be built to display them. (ABC Western Qld: Jay Carstens)<\/p>\n

Mr Storch said he hoped the line of historic metal would continue to grow.<\/p>\n

“We have more space and we have more ideas about what we want to do and make it a bit longer, make it a true machinery mile,” he said.<\/p>\n

Grease of Queensland’s past up close<\/p>\n

The new old tractors will be on display in the coming months after a shed is extended.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The tractors from the collection of Bert Theiss were unloaded by a modern machine. (ABC Western Qld: Jay Carstens)<\/p>\n

Their story began 90 years ago when the late Bert Theiss grew a love for machinery while helping build his family’s business.<\/p>\n

The international mining giant that shares his surname began as a small earthmoving outfit in southern Queensland.<\/p>\n

“They were making the cattle roads, as they were called, to try and move cattle trucks successfully around Western Queensland, Northern Territory,” said Queensland Museum’s Jennifer High.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Jennifer High says Queensland Museum has organised the transfer of 16 crawler tractors from the Theiss collection in recent months. (Supplied: Queensland Museum)<\/p>\n

Mr Theiss spent a large portion of his life restoring tractors in a shed behind his house.<\/p>\n

“The Twenty-Twos were Bert’s passion project,” Ms High said.<\/p>\n

“[They’re] the first Caterpillars that he started working on as a teenager.”<\/p>\n

When he died in 2010, Mr Theiss’s estate gave 35 tractors to the Queensland Museum.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The donation to Ilfracombe includes three 1930s Caterpillar tractors and one from the 1950s. (ABC Western Qld: Jay Carstens)<\/p>\n

“I think some people may have only seen these machines in black and white photographs and history books,” Ms High said.<\/p>\n

“But these are big, they’re smelly, they’re greasy, and they’re there to be enjoyed by as many people as possible.”<\/p>\n

In recent months the Queensland Museum has organised the transfer of 16 of the tractors to various museums including Machinery Mile.<\/p>\n

Machinery Mile keeps visitors coming back<\/p>\n

Truck driver Matthew Barr said his tractor payload had attracted curious questions on the twelve-hour road trip from Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\"Truck<\/p>\n

Passers-by were curious about the tractors during their journey from Brisbane. (ABC Western Qld: Jay Carstens)<\/p>\n

“Every place I stopped, either for a coffee or a fuel fill-up, people came out and asked about it,” Mr Barr said.<\/p>\n

“I had people when I woke up this morning in Tambo standing around the trailer asking about how old they were and where they’d come from, and more importantly where they’re going.”<\/p>\n

That intrigue is expected to continue as the four tractors settle into their new home.<\/p>\n

\"three<\/p>\n

Onlookers welcomed the tractors to Ilfracombe from outside the pub. (ABC Western Qld: Jay Carstens)<\/p>\n

Visitor Maxwell Burls said it was his 10th year visiting the town and its unusual museum.<\/p>\n

“I’m an old truck driver and I just come here to relax. I walk me dog up and down this miracle mile every day,” he said.<\/p>\n

For his friend Michael Gallagher, walking the mile brought back memories of his own father’s truck.<\/p>\n

“It’s just the atmosphere of the whole place,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to drive past, isn’t it?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the heart of Queensland’s outback, a blue-and-white semi-trailer from Brisbane is bringing critical and treasured supplies to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,372526,61394,134,49260,57010,21815,9087,61895,372527,372525,119002],"class_list":["post-790293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bulldozers","tag-caterpillar","tag-entertainment","tag-machinery","tag-mile","tag-museum","tag-outback","tag-road-trip","tag-theiss","tag-tiny-town","tag-tractors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}