By BEN CAMERON
HE’S the Cardinia Shire’s own MacGyver of machinery.
The resourceful television star of the 1980s was known for making something out of almost nothing, and the Emerald and District Vintage Machinery Group’s Norm Dalziel is very much cut from the same cloth.
Given the right odds and ends at his disposal, Norm’s confident he can get most engines, lacking an important part or two, up and running.
“It’s a great challenge to look at something and say ‘that will never go again’,” he says.
“You have to be very resourceful. It might not be the right part to make something work.
“We spent half a day yesterday trying to get (group president) Darryl’s engine going. We had to use a stick, and a spring and a bit of string, and it’s been running all day.
“As long as it looks right and it goes.”
Down at the Berwick Show, amid the clanking, noisy rides, the showbags and sideshow alley, Norm is one of a few loyal group members braving the stifling heat to keep the hissing, spitting, smoking hot machines of vastly different eras, running.
Some are over 100 years old.
President Darryl Killingworth says the show is a great way to meet potential new members, which are almost as rare as the pre World War I machines themselves.
“We talk to a lot of people (at the show). If we get one new member a year, that’s good, but it doesn’t always happen,” he says.
“We’ve had a lot of members in the past few years pass away or get too old.”
A smile comes across Darryl’s face as he watches a young boy wander over to admire an old hand water pump.
“It (the display) gives people a chance to see things that they’ve never seen before,” he says.
“And hopefully when they get older we can drag them in as members.
“But then they get interested in the other two evils of life – girls and cars,” he laughed.
The group, started up by Darryl 15 years ago, has around 30 members, ranging in age from early thirties to late eighties.
Drawing on members from Cranbourne, Frankston and the Yarra Valley, it has the main aim of sprucing up and showing off.
“It’s to preserve old machinery,” Norm says. “We get a lot of satisfaction out of restoring and showing.”
While the group primarily attracts engineers, farmers and mechanics, people come from “all walks of life”, but with a common appreciation for engines.
“You don’t have (people saying) ‘mine’s better than yours’ with engines,” Norm says. “It’s not like the car groups.
“It’s a great learning curve for people who are interested in mechanics.”
Although bearing the town’s name, no members are actually from Emerald.
“We did have blokes around Emerald, but they did what everyone does, they all get old and fade away,” Darryl laughs.
“We’re not looking for any particular kind of people, but unfortunately we’re all men.
“We have four ladies. But it’s been traditionally a man’s thing.”
Norm takes us on a quick tour, pointing out several Australian-made machines, assembled over 60 years ago.
“Australian had fantastic manufacturing once, we made everything Australia needed, and it’s slowly being lost,” he says.
“I’ve got a bit of a passion for Australian engines.”
He has a bit more time on his hands now that his children have left home and he’s hung up the footy boots.
“I played 350 games of football in Seniors with Cora Lynn, so you couldn’t be running around with old engines and playing football,” he laughs.
Meanwhile, with a can of oil in hand, Darryl darts from one machine to the next, fawning over his engines like a proud grandfather.
“100 years ago, these (engines) were state of the art,” he says, as fellow member, Stan Hamilton, stands proudly by his 1946, fully refurbished truck, which once carted produce around Pakenham.
Norm says the secret to the group’s longevity, much like an engine’s, is passion and good old-fashioned TLC.
“As long as somebody keeps them preserved and under cover, they’ll be around for another 100 years,” he says.
“They’re not a throw-away commodity like products are today. If you wear it out, you get another one.”
However Daryl, the elder of the two, defends modern machinery.
“They make them differently, a modern car engine is an enormously sophisticated device,” he says.
“And it’s long-lasting when you consider how many hundred thousand kilometres you can get out of a modern car.
“The only reason we sell it is because it’s five to six years old, it’s not because it isn’t working. We want something with more fancy stuff in it.”
While the show can be a recruiting ground for new members, Darryl admits it’s getting harder as the years roll by.
“Shows are losing a bit of popularity,” he says.
“Mostly because metropolitan people don’t follow the shows as much as rural people. And metropolitan is moving further out of the city.
“We’ve got one young lad, he’s 33, he’s keen and young and a smart young lad. He can usually get something running, somehow (laughs).”
The Emerald and District Vintage Machinery Group meet every third Monday of the month at 8pm, odd months at the Pakenham RSL and even months at the Emerald Museum.
