SHOW-STOPPER: Roy White and his Dynamite 2000, a vehicle with 10 engines.
CANOWINDRA farmer Roy White has built a show-stopping vehicle made up of 10 engines with more than six centuries of motoring tradition in it.
“I call it the Dynamite 2000; there’s a Victa lawn mower engine with a rare two-cylinder engine in it. One of only two in the country, there’s a Volkswagen engine, a Ford engine from a transit van, a rotary engine from the 1920s and a Knocker [engine],’’ Mr White said as hundreds at the Wellington Antique Fair and Swap meet stopped by to talk with him.
“It’s all about keeping the passion alive,’’ he said. “It’s something for me to do in my retirement and I really enjoy it.”
Mr White has 34 tractors on his property, including a Dodge truck and a Louisville.
The 10-engine vehicle took six months to build.
“There’s 660 years of engines in this vehicle, I take it to shows around the state and people are amazed that it still goes,” Mr White said.
Wellington Antique Fair and Swap meet organiser John Edwards believes people like Mr White are the reason why the event does need to be reinvented to move with the times.
“People love our history of motor vehicles, cars, bikes, tractors and trucks. This is why we open up our town for people to see these characters and their beloved treasures,’’ he said.
The patchy rain and dark clouds didn’t sway crowd numbers with organisers saying more than 5000 people came to Wellington, as well as well hundreds of stallholders.
Michael Pearce, next to his 1882 antique washing machine which originally came from Ballarat in Victoria, says sometimes people wonder if collectors and restorers like him are just that or hoarders.
“We love restoring anything that man powered, it’s history’’ he said.
A 1923 Fordson that used to work in the orchards in Orange also caught many eyes, along with a 1949 Field Marshall diesel tractor owned by Wellington’s Michael Hayes.
“I have never changed a thing on it. It has a shotgun start ... old bullets are put into the winder and they fire her up,’’ he said.
A 1946 shearing plant, which is still used today and owned by Wellington farmer Jade McConnell and shown by Henry Willcockson was also on display.
