The 36th Echuca Steam Horse & Vintage Rally - A generation of POWER

Packed my two munchkins (Alexander 4, and Matthew 3) and enough munchkin related supplies to last a week into the 4WD and headed vaguely northwards. It was pouring with rain from before we left, and just got worse over the 300 or so km to Echuca.

A minor incident on the way, Alexander after downing a bottle of some drink he likes called "blue monster" announced in a tiny voice that he had thrown up. Stopped for a while to clean it up (that is why I take enough supplies for a week). Traveled the rest of the way to Echuca without incident along one of the back routes through every small town you can think of.

The rally is run by the Echuca Rotary Club to fund their projects throughout the year, and they do a magnificent job of organisation - everything you could possibly want at a rally was present.

When we arrived at the rally we were directed by CFA (Country Fire Authority) volunteers into the paddock carp-ark and were asked to park in the mud (since I had 4WD and should be able to get out later - as it turned out, this did not matter as the entire paddock was mud by the end of the day).

Mud, Mud, Mud...

This first picture gives you an idea of the muddy conditions, the steam turn-out, and the overcast sky.

Exhibit No.33, Marshall 1910 5hp stationary engine. Currently owned by Phil Hazelman previously by the Faulkner family of Moulemein. A word on the Hazelmans is worthy here, according to the program this family had no less than twenty steam exhibits. Many of the other exhibits include references to restoration work by the Hazelmans, they seem to be a very active family in the steam working of Echuca.
Exhibit No. 29. Clayton Shuttleworth 1910 2nhp stationary engine originally owned by Hector McKenzie exhibited by Phil Hazelman.
Exhibit No. 40. Marshall 14nhp stationary engine. Exhibited by Warwick Turner. Originally worked at a pine mill at Lake Cargellico in New South Wales. The engine has since been used in the building of Lachlan Vintage Village and stars in the movie "The Man from Snowy River 2".
Exhibit No. 41. Marshall 7nhp stationary engine. Exhibited by Warwick Turner. Built in the Marshall plant in Gainsborough in 1908 and was used for pumping water at a farm in Moulamein.
Exhibit No. 43. Shand Mason "The Defender" portable steam pump fire engine. A horse drawn fire pump made by Shand Mason of England in 1880. The engine spent its working life with the Brisbane fire brigade and now resides in the Fire Services Museum of Victoria in East Melbourne (Ed: Well worth a visit... must do a report on them one day). The people running the exhibit had a great setup with a traditional canvas tent behind the pump, a nice fire with a billy and some food cooking. The pump was sucking water out of the river about 18m below and spraying it back in (and contributing to the water spray already pouring from the heavens).
Exhibit No. 42. Eclipse portable steam engine exhibited by John Frank owned by Adam Auditori of the Echuca Steam and Navigation Company. This Australian made engine was built by the Eclipse windmill company of Queensland. Sadly this is the last engine of its kind in existence.
Exhibit No. 21. James D. Hefner identified this engine as: Foden C Type Steam Lorry. Exhibited by Dale and Francis Corry..
Exhibit No. ??. Ashamed as I am, I did not get the details of this unit - if you can help identify it, then please do!.

Exhibit No. 550. Findlay Fairground Organ built in Australia in 1987. This organ was situated right outside the sales area and was playing away quite happily in the rain. The owner had the unit open on two sides showing the internal workings. Fascinating viewing. No doubt there will be purists who are upset about a modern reproduction being at a rally, but I do not concur - this is the only organ I have seen at an Australian rally at all. The machine is very nicely made and presented, although perhaps it might look better in a period vehicle rather than a modern commercial truck :-)

Grand Parade

By this time the Grand Parade was about to start, so we duly shuffled to the main arena along with all the other sheep. Leading the parade was a huge engine called "Moses". All of the steamed traction engines took part, with some of the rollers, all of the steam wagons and an assortment of tractors. As an interesting spectacle, there were six or seven brave souls riding vintage bicycles around in the mud - even one guy on a penny-farthing (he did pretty well to make two laps when his wheels were about 2" below the surface of the mud).

Exhibit No. 22. "Moses" This monstrous Fowler 8hp single cylinder traction engine built by John Fowler Company of England lead the Grade Parade. The engine was originally imported by the Rural Water Commission for work on the Mulwala Irrigation System. Another exhibit of the Hazelman family. In the foreground of the photo (and indeed most of the Grand Parade photos) there is Exhibit No. 2 Log Buggy exhibited my Michael Corry.
Exhibit No. 10. 1924 Super Sentinel Steam Wagon. Built in 1924, this Sentinel is the property of Scienceworks museum of Victoria. The lorry was built in 1924 at the Sentinel works in Shewsbery. The wagon features 3 way tipping, 2 cylinders with a 6" bore and 9" stroke. The wagon was left to the museum by Peter Adams, the restoration was completed for the museum by Ken Blaster and Colin Booth.
Exhibit No. 12. 1923 Super Sentinel Steam Wagon. Built in 1923, this Sentinel is the older brother (sister?) of the Scienceworks wagon..
Exhibit No. 21. Foden C Type Steam Lorry. Exhibited by Dale and Francis Corry (another family who seem to have a massive interest in steam in the Echuca area). Built in the Foden works in Sandbach England in 1923 this lorry was used at a quarry in Bendigo for most of its life and originally had a steel tipping body. Currently the lorry has a general purpose tray.
Exhibit No. 493?. GMC Amphibious vehicle built for use in the Normandy landing in 1943 in Detroit USA by the Yellow Coach bus company.
Exhibit No. 493?. GMC Amphibious vehicle built for use in the Normandy landing in 1943 in Detroit USA by the Yellow Coach bus company.At least one of these captions is wrong - please help me identify these two vehicles properly! The two amphibious machines have to be the most unusual vehicles I've seen at a major rally - hats off to the owners for bringing them along. Visited on: 25/09/99 01:06 Location: Maassluis Holland e-mail: rosloot@caiw.nl Comment... on the following page you ask for info on the GMC http://www.webmania.com.au/se/info/eventreport/echuca_1999.html The answer is on http://4wd.sofcom.com/Mil/Seep/Seep.html and http://4wd.sofcom.com/Mil/DUKW/DUKW.html greetings, Hans
Exhibit No. 5. Fowler 6hp traction engine built in 1884 for James Nicholas of the "Hercules" saw mill at Picola. Currently owned by the Corry Family (Dale) of Mooroopna Victoria. Thanks Andrew Barry Franklin for the additional detail on this one. Mar2002 In the foreground is a Singer Penny Farthing Exhibit No. 376. built in 1884 owned by Adam Auditori.
Exhibit No. 6. Foden C Type steam wagon built in 1923. Worked general haulage in the Armidale area, then was used as a winch at a sawmill. Currently owned by the Royal Australian Navy Steam Club based at HMAS Cerberus (a naval base not a ship) in Victoria. Sorry about the fuzzy photo, my poor Casio QV100 was having a hard time in the low light, but I figure a fuzzy photo is better than none!
Exhibit No. ??. Lanz Bulldog and some more of the ever present log buggy. I did not take many photos of tractors in the Grand Parade as they come out so small.
Exhibit No. ??. Chamberlain Industrial.
James D. Hefner identied this as The steam rollers are Aveling & Porter; perhaps 12166 of 1928, and 14012 of 1930, which I have listed in Echuca. The steam roller picture below the live steam locomotives is the same one as the one pictured above them.
Exhibit No. ??. Ashamed as I am, I did not get the details of this unit - if you can help identify it, then please do!.
Exhibit No. ??. Ashamed as I am, I did not get the details of this unit - if you can help identify it, then please do!.
Exhibit No. ??. Steam fire engine with vertically mounted lizard pump..
Exhibit No. 19+20. Fowler Traction Engine and Living Van owned by Bill Smith. This 7hp unit number 11487 was built in 1909. The engine and van travel to rallies under its own steam regularly. The engine arrived in Australia in 1910 and has been used for agricultural work. The engine is fully outfitted with alternator and lights for road travel. The living van was built in Scotland in 1928 and has been outfitted as a living van carrying both Bill (and team) and the supplies for the engine. Thanks to Bruce Paroissien for helping me identify this machine.
Exhibit No. ??. Ashamed as I am, I did not get the details of this unit - if you can help identify it, then please do!.
Exhibit No. ??. Ashamed as I am, I did not get the details of this unit - if you can help identify it, then please do!.
Exhibit No. ??. Ashamed as I am, I did not get the details of this unit - if you can help identify it, then please do!.
Exhibit No. ??. Ashamed as I am, I did not get the details of this unit - if you can help identify it, then please do!.
Exhibit No. ??. Ashamed as I am, I did not get the details of this unit - if you can help identify it, then please do!.
Exhibit No. ??. Ashamed as I am, I did not get the details of this unit - if you can help identify it, then please do!.

Traditional Post and Rail Fencing

After the parade we moved onto a food stand for some much needed hot food. We watched a demonstration by Mr Ross Baker who was making traditional post and rail fencing using only hand tools. He used two different axes, an adze, and an assortment of drills. There was also a Lister "D" putting away to itself not doing anything much. Ross took time out to explain exactly what he was doing to the watchers. One fella asked about restoring an old axe head and Ross went into great detail - a bit to much for most of the watchers who wandered away. Surprisingly my boys were attentive and quiet all the way through.

The miniature steam railway

Next we strolled down to the miniature steam railway where we rode two trains. After riding, we waited beside the track and watched several more parade past.

Exhibit No. 70. Free lance model locomotive "ALMA" with vertical boiler driving two beam engines built by Len Stampton of the BHP Westernport Railway Society. Another crap photo I'm afraid.
Exhibit No. 73. Model locomotive based on the Black 5 restored and finished by Max E Wilson. I could be wrong on this one, I think the loco is the Black 5 - HELP!!.
Exhibit No. 75. Model locomotive "Romillas" based on an English Contractors Bagnamm locomotive. The builder Kevin Wadley of Lake Hume Model Engineers spent over 1600 hours making this jewel.
This is Alex and Matthew rugged up against the cold and wet enjoying the model locomotives steaming past less than a metre away from their vantage point - at their height these things look a bit more real than they do to me :-). The one closer to the camera is Matthew who is 3 years old, and the other is Alexander of a lengthy 4 years. For those of you who know the story, Matthew is the one who had the trouble with his eyes - fortunately he is now 100% and can enjoy the sights of the rallies we attend and not just the sounds.
Exhibit No. ??. A nice blue loco from the Cobden Miniature Railway - I do not have any other details on this one.
This is the station and exit signalling of the miniature railway. I have to say that these guys were acting very professionally and safely. People were kept out of the station until all trains had stopped, disembarking passengers were led out before embarking passengers were allowed in. There were colour light signals. The signal men were exchanging hand signals with the drivers as a backup. Whistles were used at the crossings. Trains were kept apart and operated at a safe speed around the loop. All in all I got the impression of a smooth running well practiced operation - well done people!

Horse working

With much screeching and gnashing of teeth (them screeching, me gnashing) we left the trains and went up to the horse area. Alex was interested to see the horses and forgot the trains, Matthew was not convinced until a Clydesdale came over for a sniff and Matthew was sure it was going to eat his head - strangely, he thought this concept was very funny. We watched some horse working including cutting chaff, and loading big wool bales from the ground to a wagon using just horse power (1 hp :-)...

Exhibit No. 359. Wool wagon loading demonstration using one horse power (a horse :-). I was impressed how quickly these people were able to work..

Just a few stationary engines>

After a time we wandered over to the stationary engines where we made a brief inspection which after just a couple of photos was cut short my the sky opening up and dumping even more water on us (note that it had only stopped raining while we rode the trains - about 20 minutes). We raced over to a catering tent and got some warm milk for the boys and some tea for me.

Exhibit No. 130. Lister 5hp built in 1920. Interestingly this engine looks like a more "polished" version of the Southern Cross PA type engine that I am restoring. The PA is considerably larger but there is no mistaking that Southern Cross probably based their design on this Lister unit. It even sounds the same.Make your own comparison
Exhibit No. 136. Hornsby 6.5hp built in 1912. An interesting shade of purple. I doubt this is the original colour, but it certainly makes it stand out at the rally amongst the sea of green all around it.
Exhibit No. 136 the other end.
Exhibit No. ??. Ashamed as I am, I did not get the details of this unit - if you can help identify it, then please do!.
Exhibit No. ??. Ashamed as I am, I did not get the details of this unit - if you can help identify it, then please do!.

Off home...

I took the boys back to the car, and stripped off the muddy clothes. Both boys had mud all the way up to their crotch just from walking around the field. I fared better since my crotch is better located a metre higher than theirs :-) I was thinking of getting into the spare clothes and going back after the rain stopped. We waited about 25 minutes in the car (listening to a Thomas the tank engine tape over, and over again - ARGH) but the weather did not show any signs of clearing. Matthew having a massive grumpy attack (a sure sign he is about to go to sleep) caused me to decide to leave instead of visiting more of the rally. Unfortunately we missed the vintage cars, most of the stationary engines (although at a glance these looked like your usual Australian collection), tractors, and the farming life displays. We also missed all of the tractor competitions.

In the bog

On the way out, I pulled another car out of a self generated bog - why is the first reaction of many drivers to plant their foot when they are in mud and achieve nothing but dig themselves a big hole. I was at least satisfied to spray mud on their white car while pulling them out. There was a huge Zetor tractor working away patiently towing other cars out of the mud. After unhitching I took off over the way we had come in (which was now closed to anything except 4WD, tractors, and trucks). Once off the field we ventured into town for fuel and a toilet stop and then off home. Because the weather had deteriorated even more, I decided to use the main highways instead of the secondary routes that I usually take - mistake! There is nothing like coming across someone with a 3km long tail back of cars traveling at 30km/hour because their windows are fogged up - just turn on your air conditioner (or open your windows) and the internal fogging goes away. After spending half an hour slowly working my away along the tail back as safe opportunities manifested we finally got a clear road and made it home without incident.

Conclusion - thumbs up!!!

Despite the weather, this was (as usual) one of the highlights of the rally year. Next year when Matthew is a bit bigger I plan on staying in the region for the whole long weekend (one of the good things about being part of the Pommy empire is we get the day off on the queens birthday). The whole town gets in on the act with most of the local CFA and SES volunteers involved in some way. There is the rally ground itself of course, but there are also paddle steamers, and several museums in the region. Just a few km away at "Swan Hill" is an operating reproduction of an 1800's pioneer town. I've watched this place evolve over the years into its present outstanding level.

Thanks

Thanks to the organisers for a great rally. Most of the information used in writing the text accompanying the photos has been sourced from the event program.