Warrangong Vintage Harvest Day

23/10/2025

As a heads up, there will be a feature story on the Warrangong Vintage Harvest Day in the summer edition of the Regional Lifestyle Magazine. You will be able to pick up a copy at your local newsagent.

09/04/2025

Kerry showing off his thatching skills - he stooked the wheat after harvest, and used the sheaves to thatch this original shed on his farm. Chicken wire is used underneath and on top of the thatching.

23/02/2025

In 1962 Jacob & Son, Walla Walla, sold five Massey Ferguson self propelled headers with one bought by Kerry Peitch's father, Victor, and another by the Hogg family. That year the Pietsch family transitioned from bag to bulk, and also invested in a new Bedford truck with side delivery bin, and an auger.

24/01/2025

Many thanks to farmmachinerysales.com.au for running the coverage on the vintage harvest day. 👉

Equipment dating as far back as 1905 were part of a vintage harvest day in Warrangong earlier this month

23/01/2025

Many thanks to the Australasian Farmers' & Dealers' Journal for running the coverage of the vintage harvest day: Read here: https://afdj.com.au/warrangong-vintage-harvest-2025-was-a-rare-sight-with-old-headers-at-work/

20/01/2025

Here are all the vintage headers and tractors belonging to the Warrangong Heritage Collection lined up before they were put back into the sheds. Image courtesy of Bruce Taylor, an instigator of the Headlie Taylor Header Museum at Henty. If you are ever passing through Henty make sure to stop and visit the museum. Headlie Taylor was a revolutionary inventor, self taught engineer and inventor of the header harvester and the first auto header to be commercially produced.

17/01/2025

And, that's a wrap from all of us - hope you enjoyed the photos and videos of the day.

17/01/2025

A special shout out to all the helpers, relatives and friends who have helped Kerry over the past year, months, weeks and days to have the collection ready for the public. You did an outstanding job getting ready so many machines and driving them without a hiccup. Kerry would especially like to thank Bryson Terlich and Lloyd Slocum for devoting an entire week to washing and preparing the headers.

17/01/2025

Kerry on his favourite header - the Sunshine originally owned by his father.
“I’m over the moon. The crowd was a lot more than I thought and everything went well," he said.
“The old headers are really thirsty on fuel – 10 tractors and 27 headers – the last time I didn’t have as many headers. I had two guys from Table Top and Lockhart who put everything into it and worked on headers over a week, they are magic people.
“My favouirite is my dad’s self-propelled Sunshine Auto, my great grandfather drew a block at Urangeline East of 5000 acres after coming across from Dimboola on wagons. They had horsedrawn headers and my grandfather bought two Sunshine Auto headers from Melbourne, and put them on the train to Urangeline East to siding. Sunshine sent two mechanics with them and they reassembled the comb and drove those headers to the farm. People heard about it and came from everywhere in buggies and trucks to see these big headers working. Most of the headers were only 8 foot wide.
"When dad married he bought this block at Pleasant Hills in 1937 and bought one of the Sunshine bagging machines with him. In 1962, dad changed to a self-propelled Massey Ferguson 585 header and sold the Sunshine to dealers Jacobs, Walla Walla. A Culcairn farmer bought the header and I used to go over to Culcairn abattoir with pigs and saw the header standing in the weather. I plucked up courage one day and asked if I could buy it. I towed it back home and all the elevators were worn, it took me a long time to get it restored. Today it has been in the crop.
"I am game to say I am the only person in Ausrtralia with the three different Sunshine headers and all working. One has the Fordson motor and two speed gearbox while another has a 4 cylinder Wisconsin motor with a two speed gearbox while the third has a Wisconsin motor with a 3 speed gear box. They haven’t got hydraulics so to lift the comb up and down, there is a shaft that runs back into a box and when you pull a lever, the comb goes up or down.
“I’ve got so many different sorts of headers including a big range of Sunshine so I decided to put the day on.
“A bloke donated a John Deere 95 with a petrol motor a few months ago and I was hoping to have that header here today but it needs a set of rings and I couldn’t get it started, and I was pretty disappointed about that. I will have to sell the hay in my hay shed to put the header in as I’m not building any more sheds."
His youngest header is a New Holland TR 85 – "I was lucky to get that New Hollland as it had two fronts – an open front and a comb front.
“It’s very important to maintain the heritage. I have my own museum on this property and it takes three to four hours to walk through."

17/01/2025

There are plenty of people around who have driven one of these - the 1980s New Holland TR 85. This one was used in rice and came with two fronts, a 20 foot open front and a 25 foot Connor Shea comb front. It was powered by a V8 Caterpillar 3208 175hp engine and had the luxury of an air conditioned cabin.

17/01/2025

Kerry with the branded Sunshine fuel cap off on the Auto Header as he prepares to run it for a film crew.

16/01/2025

The 1980 John Deere 1051 PTO header with a detachable front. It is one of 187 machines made in the Chamberlain factory in Perth.