The Bay Post/Moruya Examiner profiles the hobbies of people in our community each week in the feature, ‘Get on your hobbyhorse’. Do you have an interesting hobby? Email journalist Josh Gidney at josh.gidney@fairfaxmedia.com.au or phone him at 4472 6577.
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TO visit Dave Hartwig’s garage in Tomakin is to step back in time to see what once drove rural Australia.
Mr Hartwig, 69, has been a stationary engine enthusiast since he saw one at a show in Canberra 20 years ago.
“The engines were all sitting there, and I thought that they surely wouldn’t work, but they were all going,” he said.
“I was amazed to see them running and thought ‘I’d better get one of those, it should be a good hobby’.”
It wasn’t the first time he had seen such machines working.
“I grew up on the land at Temora, and we had them there, but I had no interest in them then,” he said.
He soon bought his first engine, for $50, and got it going himself.
“I’m self-taught,” he said.
These largely petrol-powered machines replaced horses in a multitude of jobs early in the 20th century, and were vital to the smooth running of rural Australia.
“They were driving everything; water pumps, grain gristers, milk separators and shearing sheds,” Mr Hartwig said.
When the Moruya Antique Tractor and Machinery Association began in the 1990s he joined it while on holiday in the shire, and settled here nine years ago.
Mr Hartwig estimates he has about 19 engines, most in perfect working order and some undergoing restoration.
“There’s a magazine that comes out every two months, and you can get engines from that, or on eBay, but word-of-mouth is the best source,” he said.
“It’s a really big hobby in America, so there is a good aftermarket.
“While the US dollar value is making it hard, if you want to get engines or parts you get them.”
Asked to nominate a favourite engine, he names a two-horsepower Buzacott built around 1935.
Many of his machines were built between 1915 and 1918, in both the US and Australia.
The engines aren’t pocket-sized, so space is a problem.
“It’s hard when you run out of room and have to get rid of one, but there is always somebody on the lookout for one,” he said.
While most of Mr Hartwig’s engines are in perfect working order, they are purely for show, and aren’t used for practical purposes.
“They’ve done their work,” he said.
“I wouldn’t want to be out pumping water all night.”