COOLATAI farmer Alan Uebergang only recently bought a new John Deere combine harvester in time for the harvest this season, but things took a more historical turn for the harvest of a paddock of oats at Blue Nobby Station on Monday.
Yetman local Peter Venables visited the property with his antique, horse-drawn stripper and winnower, taking many spectators on a trip down memory lane when he took the machines, built in the late 1800s by a Sydney-based company, for a spin.
"I bought them about 30 years ago from a farmer at Monteagle, near Young, but this is the first time I've tried using them since then and they'd sat in the shed at Young for many years before I bought them," Mr Venables said.
Mr Venables, who said he first started working with draught horses in 1942 for a shilling a day leading horses for his family's neighbour, has a collection of about 13 horse-drawn vehicles of all shapes and sizes, from pony-sized to Clydesdale-sized.
The demonstration came about after Mr Uebergang met Mr Venables at the North Star centenary celebrations last year, where the stripper and winnower were on display.
The paddock of Warrego oats, sown in early April, had been sprayed with Roundup 10 days earlier to be ready for the horse-drawn harvester, Mr Uebergang said.
Mr Uebergang's mother Sylvie was one spectator left reminiscing of days gone by following the demonstration - the 91-year-old recalled riding her father's draught horses around the paddock when she was a girl.