Big wheels keep on turning for Western District mechanic Ray Gilbert

Ray Gilbert is still toiling with tractors and tinkering with trucks after more than six decades. Is this Western District businessman Victoria’s longest-serving mechanic?

Long haul: Ray Gilbert started his career in 1958. Picture: Zoe Phillips

IS Ray Gilbert the longest-serving mechanic in Victoria?

With a career spanning six decades and having recently celebrated his 80th birthday, the Camperdown businessman is still toiling with tractors and tinkering with trucks.

Mr Gilbert started his career in 1958 in Nullawarre, working for mechanic Jack Jones on the type of tractors that he still repairs to this day.

“Grey Fergies, old Austins and Bedfords and stuff like that. There’s still a few around. “Tractors were from that era were simple but they’ve stood the test of time,” he said.

Only a decade later, the young Mr Gilbert set up his own business in Noorat, just north of Terang. He relocated his business to Camperdown in 1985 — where he remains to this day.

“I’ve still got a lot of the customers I started with in Noorat all those years ago,” he said.

“Things have changed a lot in that 60 or so years. When I was working at Noorat, farmers were still carting their milk to the factory in their little Morris commercial trucks. Then compulsory refrigeration came along and that put a lot of the smaller farmers out of business.”

The mechanical mind runs in the Gilbert family — Ray’s sons Kelvin and Neville also work at the Camperdown business.

Ray Gilbert prefers working on the ag classics. Picture: Zoe Phillips

His sons deal with the high-tech stuff but Mr Gilbert prefers the agricultural classics.

“In the tractors, the 135 Fergies and the old Fordson Majors — they were the ones that gave people years and years of reliable service,” he said.

“A lot of those tractors are still in service on farms today. In fact, I’ve got a couple myself — I’ve got a ’65 Fergie, a Fordson Major, a Ford 5000 — I get a lot of enjoyment out of them still operating and putting them to work.”

And the answer to the original question: Is Ray the longest-serving mechanic in Victoria?

Well, there’s a friendly rival for the title just an hour’s drive down the road.

“A good friend of mine — Norm McCullagh — runs an engine reconditioning firm down in Warrnambool,” Mr Gilbert said. “Norm’s just a few months older than me — he keeps asking me when I’m going to retire and I keep asking him!

“I haven’t thought seriously about retiring yet. I suppose it’s not that far away but I’ll keep on keeping on.”

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