More than 20 years ago Ronan Revell rescued two dilapidated 70-year-old cotton pickers from being buried on a Wee Waa farm with the idea of using the wrecks to create a fully restored machine.
Back then Mr Revell was a cotton farmer himself on Molleen near Wee Waa and after pulling the machines into bits he realised what an enormous task he faced.
The bits lay rusting in a heap for some years until Mr Revell and wife Wendy moved into Wee Waa about 12 years ago.
When he got to town Mr Revell decided if he didn't get cracking the project wouldn't happen.
The two International Harvester M-12-H model single-row cotton pickers had been built in Memphis,Tennessee, around 1948 or 1949 and had been imported into Australia by ex-American farmer, Vernon Fitchett, in the late 1960s.
Fortunately the late Mr Fitchett was reluctant to discard his old machinery but was about to push the pickers into a hole and cover them with dirt when Mr Revell found out about their looming fate.
With the strong support of Wendy and some eager local volunteers Mr Revell supervised the transformation of the two wrecked pickers and parts gathered from around the region and beyond into a gleaming, fully restored machine.
One source of spare parts was the Kahl family's farm machinery "graveyard" which yielded up the original gear stick.
Paul Kahl and Frank Hadley moved from California to Wee Waa to pioneer the cotton industry in the Namoi Valley in the early 1960s.
Mr Revell and his brother, Dave, had been cotton pioneers themselves in the Ord irrigation scheme in WA's Kimberley region in the 1960s but grew sick of the constant battle to spray pests out of their crops.
Mr Revell also broke his back in a tractor accident while in the Ord when he was 22 and spent 12 months recovering in Perth but the injuries severely hampered his mobility.
"I ended up being able to walk with irons on my legs, I could get about and drive a tractor," he said.
In May this year the project was finally complete and a gleaming red IH M-12-H cotton picker, the first commercial model ever built in the US, was driven to a cotton field near the town for a photo shoot.
The picker is now housed in Wee Waa's Namoi Echo Museum along with an International H tractor which Mr Revell also restored.
He also has a fully restored 1927 Buick sedan in his garage at home.
"It's in perfect going condition, he said.
His brother Dave was also a keen collector of old farm machinery including a large number of steam engines and old tractors which were auctioned recently.
Vernon Graham
Former editor of The Land, former Fairfax Media Agricultural Editor
Former editor of The Land, former Fairfax Media Agricultural Editor
