History of Katamatite headers and tractors put together in a book

Katamatite’s Fred Pendlebury’s photographic record of his family’s machinery shows how much things have changed in farming since 1931.

Fred Pendlebury from Katamatite has collated a book of tractor pictures. Picture: Zoe Phillips

RETIRED Katamatite farmer Fred Pendlebury has immortalised his many years of tractor admiration on the pages of a self-made book.

The 88-year-old has taken pictures of his family’s tractors and headers dating back to 1931 — the year he was born — and collated them to share with the next generations.

“The general idea of keeping those books are to share them with the grandkids and so on,” Mr Pendlebury said.

The second-generation wheat farmer drove tractors for 54 years and said his love for machinery began when he first got behind the wheel at just 10 years of age.

His father first started taking the pictures of the machinery and Mr Pendlebury continued the trad­ition, even when it got annoying.

Fred Pendlebury from Katamatite has collated a book of tractor pictures.

“I took a lot of photos and Dad did too. It was a bit of a nuisance to get off the tractor or header and take a photo but I’m glad we did,” he said.

“It’ll be a good record of all the machinery we had, all the tractors we had, all the headers we had and what they were used for.” His neighbours and family shared in revisiting the past of the machines, with Mr Pendlebury adding a small story with the pictures, noting when each tractor was bought and what it was used for.