THE Vintage Tractor & Machinery Association of WA (Tracmach) giant tractor project is back on track and set for a new location at Carnamah, after the Gnowangerup 360 group withdrew its support.
Tracmach State president John Piavanini said after it was announced in the Farm Weekly last year that Gnowangerup had withdrawn its support, the organisation had an immediate expression of interest from Hal Walton, the former owner of T&H Walton stores, and supplier of thousands of Chamberlain and John Deere tractors into the region.
Mr Piavanini said Brendon Haeusler, a local farmer in Carnamah, had suggested to Mr Walton that they should start a committee and begin gathering support and funding ideas to bring the project together.
"The Carnamah Big Tractor Committee was formed and is in the process of seeking formal support from the local council," Mr Piavanni said.
"Major funding for the project will be sought from State and Federal grants.
"Fundraising is well underway with private and corporate donations already coming in.
"The committee has also set up a GoFundMe page online that can be found by searching gofundme 'Giant Tractor Project'."
Tracmach founder Bob Lukins said that the giant tractor would be the first known in the world fabricated from steel.
"We are led to believe that there may be a wooden structure in the United States," Mr Piavanini said.
"The giant tractor was Bob's idea some 22 years back and was spoken about on many occasions until a couple of years ago when I said lets do a survey of our 535 members and see what support we had.
"About 130 members supported and three did not, a few others said they would prefer to see tractors painted on silos or cut outs of tractors bordering roads into rural towns.
"The 40K model Chamberlain was chosen for the project because at the time developing farmers were looking for bigger horse power tractors and the 40K was the first fully built tractor built in WA by Chamberlain industries in Welshpool.
"We thought with the heritage value to Western Australia this would create a strong tourist drawcard to the district that wished to proceed and build it."
Mr Piavanini said that it was well known that "towns and districts that had a big ram, a big pineapple, a big banana or a big crayfish, or big whatever, have tourists and travellers stop in the town, take a photo and have a look around and hopefully spend some dollars in the town before they leave".
He said the project would not be cheap but "must be done properly so to be iconic and that all who take the time to stop and have a look will tell others about this town that built the giant tractor and hopefully will find its way onto the tourist maps around Australia as have other big iconic structures".