
The opening of the Big Tractor at Carnamah pulled a solid crowd on Saturday. Photo: Julie Bingham
FOR the first time in more than 40 years, a new Chamberlain tractor is on display in Western Australia.
It stands 11.5m high and 16m long, enough to make it what is believed to be the world’s biggest tractor sculpture, and the latest “big thing” to join Australia’s tourist attractions.
Its official opening took place in the Mid West wheatbelt town of Carnamah on Saturday in front of a crowd featuring those who have donated their time, their money, or both to turn the dream of a big tractor for Carnamah into a reality.
Rather than coming out of a factory at Welshpool in suburban Perth, as working Chamberlains did from 1949 until the 1980s, the replica was made in Geraldton by mining-sector specialist DIAB Engineering.
Carnamah farmer and Big Tractor committee chair Brendon Haeusler said plans for a Big Tractor to complement the 100 working vintage John Deere and Chamberlain tractors on show at the nearby Walton’s Tractor Museum have been in the pipeline for more than 20 years.

Brendon Haeusler addresses the crowd gathered at Carnamah on Saturday. Image: Tracmach
The brainchild of Vintage Tractor & Machinery Association of WA, or Tracmach, founder Bob Lukins, the model is exactly five times bigger than a working 40K, one of the kerosene-powered workhorses which propelled Australian farming from the horse-drawn into the machine-driven era.
Mr Haeusler said the decision to make the Big Tractor a Chamberlain 40K, rather than any other make or model, was an easy one.
“The Chamberlains made two 40-horsepower prototypes in Melbourne, and after World War II, the WA Government enticed the brothers over here,” Mr Hauesler said.
They moved into what was Australia’s sixth and last small arms munitions factory to be built during the war.
According to the WA Government’s heritage website, Chamberlain in the 1960s held one quarter of the Australian tractor market, then around 13,000 units per annum; the business also made scarifiers, ploughs, and seeders.
“The 40K was the first commercially produced tractor made in Western Australia, so the model celebrates WA manufacturing, agriculture, and engineering.”
Chamberlain’s 40K featured a 40-horsepower engine. and the manufacturer moved into diesel-powered tractors of up to 70hp in the 1950s.
Chamberlain was producing tractors powered by 100hp-plus engines in the 1970s, when the business was bought by John Deere, and transitioned to using John Deere engines ahead of the Welshpool site ceasing manufacturing in the 1980s, and being sold and redeveloped.
Labour of love
Mr Haeusler said plans for the Big Tractor were drawn up over “hundreds of hours” of volunteer time in 2018 by engineering draftsman Frank Kidman.
“He parked an original 40k outside his office, and wore a deep trench from there to his computer designing it.”
The project received $30,000 from the Carnamah Shire Council, and $10,000 from the Mid West Development Commission, but has otherwise been funded by private and corporate donations.
“Tracmach raised a huge amount…and we had to take out a small private loan to get it over the line.”
“We’ll be adding a bit of signage on site.”
Plans are also afoot to build the Big Tractor a shelter, and make some informative audio material available.

An original Chamberlain 40K tractor from Walton’s Tractor Museum, Carnamah, was fired up along with its almost 100 stablemates for the official opening of the town’s Big Tractor exhibit. Photo: Jenny McDonald, Carnamah
Parts for the model were made at DIAB’s Geraldton workshop using 42 tonnes of steel.
“They assembled it there to make sure it all went to together, then pulled it to bits, painted it, and brought it out in seven or eight oversized loads.”
Mr Haeusler said the Big Tractor’s official opening had people from across WA in attendance, as well as visitors from as far afield as Tasmania and Queensland.
The exact location of the world’s second-biggest model tractor is perhaps something a Grain Central reader could clarify.
“I believe there’s a big wooden one somewhere in America.”
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