Saturday, March 30, 2024

Collectors flock to tractor auction

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The late Ross Kinsman dedicated his life to his collection of vintage farm machinery which attracted hundreds of buyers and onlookers to what has been deemed the biggest single vintage tractor sale in Australasia’s history.
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More than 1500 collectors, farmers, the curious and the tyre-kickers from all over New Zealand and some from Australia, gravitated to the estate dispersal auction last week at Fairlie in south Canterbury.     

An 800-metre line up of more than 100 vintage tractors of all makes and models, shapes, sizes and condition was a feature of the sale.

All had been at work at some stage as Kinsman tried his hand at a bit of everything, from cropping and sheep farming to sawmilling. 

An equally impressive offering of vintage and veteran trucks, flanked by old threshing mills, cutters and binders, combines, crawlers, stationary engines and everything in between, attracted attention from the 500-odd genuine bidders who registered in hope of a bargain.

At first the sale resembled a paddock of dust-covered junk. Unveiled it proved a field of dreams.

Kinsman lost his battle with cancer in 2009. His wife Elizabeth said her husband had spent his lifetime collecting vintage tractors, trucks and farm machinery.

The couple married in 1990 when Elizabeth, originally from the Philippines, moved to Fairlie with him.

He dedicated most of his life to his collection, an obsession started when he bought a Fordson tractor as a 15-year-old, she said. 

As well as tractors, his estate included 150 assorted items including a range of Bedford trucks and historic sawmilling and farming equipment. 

It had taken about four months to prepare the collection for auction.

“He sometimes hid it from me when he bought another one,” Elizabeth said. 

“He was born to be a collector. The more he grew up the more he collected. He loved it, they were his pride and joys, that was his happiness.”   

None of the couple’s three children shared their father’s passion.

“They were not interested in the collection.”

Sale brokers Peter Walsh and Associates reported a hectic sale day. 

“It was a pretty unique sale  not your usual clearing sale, that’s for sure. 

“It’s all traditional stuff and because of that it’s drawn a really different sort of crowd,” agents said.

The top price of the auction was $11,000 paid for a restored early model Fordson tractor.

Fordson was his favourite make, Elizabeth said and she was keeping a Fordson steel wheel with tracks along with a 1938 Chevrolet truck, which she planned to restore.

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