Case of the tractors

“Each time I got off, he’d put me back on because he had to make enough money to pay the financial instalments,” he said.

That was when Doug was 14 years of age and had left school to work for his father at “Moonvale”, Gillenbah, in the Narrandera district.

These days – and nine JI Case tractors (in full working order) later – Doug farms three properties with his son, Eddie, another old tractor buff, based on “Wilga Park”, Condobolin.

They stick to first-cross prime lamb production of Poll Dorsets over their 1500 Merino ewes.

Cropping has been carried out by sharefarmers as the duo has never wanted to get too deep in debt with expensive farm machinery.

Doug and Eddie (pictured with four of their restored machines, including two Dex and two LA machines) are proud of their collection of nine Case tractors.

A keen ear will hear a full story about the history of each as the Nortons have original purchase papers and other historic records on each and quite proudly prepared to share their stories.

Doug’s first tractor experience was on an LA 46 (also the third in the pictured line-up).

“During the (Second World) War tractors were almost impossible to obtain and dad had one on order for months,” Doug said.

“Around 1944 JI Case built a special order of LA model tractors for the American military, with 124 pegged for the Pacific region.

“Case made about 300 of these models that went to Europe as well as the Pacific.

“They were tyre fitted, not crawlers, because they could move fast when required, especially in fear of attack.”

The ship that had 62 (half of the 124) on board bound for Singapore was sunk by Japanese while the second consignment was detoured to Australia for agricultural use soon after the hydrogen bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that forced Japan’s surrender.

These went to the Case distributor, Gemmel Tractor Company of 92-102 Cleveland Street, Chippendale, and it was from there that one was delivered to the Nortons’ Narrandera property.

The original delivery advice letter is still kept by Doug and explains where the tractor was railed to (Lane and Company, Narrandera) plus starting procedures and other relevant information on a personally-typed letter delivered by post.

“It was still painted jungle green, but came with a can of ‘Flamebeau red’ paint, what you and I would call the ‘Case orange’,” Doug said.

“It was a petrol engine which was later converted to kerosene vaporisers.

“They had to change the pistons as part of the conversion to alter the compression.”

The other tractors pictured include a JI Case 1939 Dex (the first in the line-up) which Doug found at Gulargambone.

“The ‘D’ is the series and the ‘ex’ means for export,” Doug said.

“The manufacture of Dex models from 1939 to 1956 tallied 1162, but I don’t know the history of this tractor’s first two years.

“We bought it at Ariah Park, the old fellow that owned it died of a heart attack in a stook of hay as he was getting ready to attend the local show.”

Doug said the family at Ariah Park used to place their old tractors in a line as they wore out and got to their “use-by” date.

“When finished with them, they’d just add the tractor to the line.”

The second tractor in the photo was purchased by the Nortons “third-hand” from Peter Quirk of Forbes in 2010.

The Quirks purchased this tractor second-hand from the Bartell family, “Byrneville”, Ariah Park, at the late L.A. Bartell’s clearing sale in 1942.

“We have the original sale docket and receipts of the Quirk purchase,” Eddie Norton said.

The fourth tractor has a unique story as well.

It’s a 1950 LA model which was converted to diesel.

“In the 1960s and ‘70s, Scoble and Nash Pty Ltd, Parkes, converted upwards of 300 Case tractors from petrol and kerosene to diesel engines,” Doug said.

“Matter of fact, Stewart Nash who is now retired, can give a history of just about every tractor they converted.”

Eddie said his tractor was fitted with a Perkins 6/354 diesel engine, “the biggest six-cylinder in the range”.

“This tractor after its conversion was brilliant in its simplicity,” he said.

“The old petrol 35 horsepower engine was replaced by something like 80hp or bigger, so you can imagine the power.

“They had a terrific back end on them, those old busses, they were indestructible.”

The Nortons believe this model was possibly the most reliable tractor of that era.