Horrell’s passion for old tractors
He owned a contract harvesting business from 1956 to 2015 and on trips to farms around Southland, he and his workers kept an eye out for old tractors under hedges and trees.
His oldest tractor, a 1920 Austin, was originally owned by Alex Findlayson, of Dipton West.
‘‘It stopped doing agricultural work in the 1950s,’’ Horrell said.
In the mid 1970s, he got a 1939 International tractor that had been used on his wife’s grandfather’s farm at Gap Rd.
Five tractors have been imported from Australia, including a 18-28 Oliver Hart Parr which his son, Bryce, spotted outside a farm shed in Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. He noticed it just in time because it was to be dumped into a hole the next day.
Bryce arranged for the tractor to travel across the Tasman in the bucket of a giant earth moving machine that was being shipped to Lyttleton.
Horrell’s favourite tractor, a 1948 Minneapolis-Molize UDM, was located in Garston and took a retired engineer in Dunedin two years to fix.
‘‘Only six came into the country and now there’s only three [remaining].’’
In August, Horrell will drive a Massey-Harris tractor at a vintage machinery show in Hamilton, Victoria. Horrell sent the MasseyHarris to a friend 15 years ago and the friend wants him to drive it at the show.