Rare machinery gets lease of life

The Schubert family has been farming on the cleared Mallee land, 30 kilometres out of Loxton, since 1912, gradually adding to the original 971-hectare block.

Rodney Schubert has now passed the property onto his son but he vividly remembers his time farming, and the many implements that were stored in his shed.

The stone homestead on the property was built in 1923 and Mr Schubert added the shed in 1959, during the time he inherited the property from his father.

But the simple yet sturdy shed did not start out life on this farm – it originally housed the Loxton timber mill.

When the business decided to upgrade to a shed made of railway iron, the managers first offered it to the Loxton Show Society.

Three years later, in the drought year of 1959, Mr Schubert made his way into town on a Thursday, market day, and found the owner desperate to get rid of the shed that the show society had failed to collect.

"It was a shed that was welded up out of pipe frame, 9 metres wide and about 24m long I think," he said.

"I asked the owner how much he wanted for it and it was £500 if I could remove it by the weekend so he could build a new house."

"So I called on a few neighbours who owed me a little bit of work and we pulled it down on the Friday and on Saturday morning, we loaded up one truck with frames and my vehicles with timber and iron and it was gone.

"And didn't I get in trouble with some of the show people!"

When erecting the shed, Mr Schubert modified it, welding it up, putting longer spans on the front and adding J-bars.

The new shed acted as the primary implement shed on the farm, which sheltered some of the many pieces of machinery he had acquired over the years for his sheep and cropping enterprise.

"The first machine I bought was a 5m cultivator that cost me £303 and I bought it through Loxton timber mill," Mr Schubert said.

* Full report in Stock Journal, October 23, 2014 issue.