1912 McDonald EB vintage tractor on display at National Museum after repatriation to Australia

by Angus Verley

The tractor is on display in the Gandel Atrium at the National Museum of Australian Canberra.(Supplied: National Museum of Australia)

One of the very first tractors made in Australia now has pride of place in the National Museum in Canberra after being repatriated from the United States.

The 1912 McDonald EB was produced by Melbourne engineers Alfred and Ernest McDonald, who were responsible for the first-ever Australian-made tractor four years earlier.

It was sold to Frank Chilcott for use at his farm on French Island in Victoria's Western Port Bay.

In the 1970s it was sold to a collector and restored, before eventually ending up in the United States.

That led to a campaign among tractor enthusiasts to have it repatriated and placed on public display.

Pride of place in the National Museum

Ian Coates, senior curator at the National Museum, said the tractor was a significant addition to the museum's collection.

"We're really thrilled to get this tractor," Mr Coates said.

"It's one of only two known to be in working condition and why it's so important is that, in a way, it's the missing link between steam-powered engines and the internal-combustion-driven tractor."

The McDonald EB was more versatile than its steam-powered predecessors.
(Supplied: National Museum of Australia)

The tractor is referred to as oil-driven, which was the term at the time for kerosene or gasoline-powered machinery.

"This tractor began the revolutionisation of agriculture in a way because it was lighter, more mobile, and could go in new terrain, so it was opening up new areas of the landscape for agriculture," Mr Coates said.

Successful grassroots repatriation campaign

John Edgar is a collector from Heywood in south-west Victoria and has a special interest in the early oil tractors.

He led a campaign to have the tractor repatriated from the United States and placed on public display.

He said it took a long time, but it was finally in its rightful home.

"This tractor is a national treasure and it is in the correct place for it — on public display, which allows all Australians to go and have a look at it," he said.

Mr Edgar said many machines of significance from the early 20th century had not survived.

"Fortunately this tractor escaped all the post-war scrap drives and everything else that happened to these machines," he said.

"In terms of engineering, it's innovative and Australian and it set the pace back in those early years of the 20th century."

The McDonald tractor was a real spectacle wherever it went.
(Supplied: National Museum of Australia)

From Illinois to Canberra

In 2020 the tractor was sold at auction in the United States to a Melbourne-based collector and brought to Australia.

The following year, the National Museum purchased it for $250,000 with support from the federal government's National Cultural Heritage Account.

"It's great that it is back in Australia and it's great that it's got pride of place at the National Museum," Ian Coates said.

"It's in our main atrium, so it's one of the first things you see when you walk in the door."

While it had not been run since being acquired by the National Museum, Mr Coates said the tractor was in working condition.

"It's in good condition. It has been restored, so the paintwork, for example, isn't original, but many of the core parts of it are original," he said.

First published at ABC Rural, May 22, 2023