TRACTOR PIONEERS

Peter Pratt (Australian 'Western' singer)


Dedicated to the Tractor Pioneers, like Peter’s father, Charles Roy Pratt (1915-2008), whose farming life covered the passing of the Horse era into Tractors.
A good song and an interesting slideshow, which covers farming in the NSW districts between Moree and Narrabri, and some further south around Junee (just north of Wagga).


By the fire Mother knits while in his chair the old man sits
Staring at the quiet dancing flames
He recalls the block of land from the bush he cleared by hand
To realise his dream of growing grain.

Old hands that know the feel of an iron steering wheel
On a frosty night beneath the winter stars
He can smell the fresh-turned soil, kerosine, the hot sump oil
Fond memories of those tractor days gone by.

    Ch.
    He was a Tractor Pioneer
    Saw the passing of an era as the horse teams disappeared
    And it changed the farming scene of yesteryear
    Oh he was a Tractor Pioneer.

Those tired bones now pain from years in wind and rain
As an army coat hung damp across his back
Through summer harvest heat, sitting on a cast-iron seat
As the wheat dust settled on his grease-stained hat.

We’ve come so far since then, it’s hard to comprehend
So many memories graze the old man’s mind
These simple quaint machines, once the essence of his dreams
Now slowly fade into another time.

    Chorus ….

So by the fire Mother knits while in his chair the old man sits
And remembers those good 1950s years
And he still can hear the sound of a Bulldog*** working ground
And the rocks as they resound against the shears.

    They were the Tractor Pioneers
    Saw the passing of an era as the horse teams disappeared
    And it changed the farming scene of yesteryear
    Yes, they were the Tractor Pioneers.


*** presumably the KL Bulldog from Victoria, based on the German Lanz Bulldog tractor : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanz_Bulldog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML_L0B0Sv4o    : starting a 1951 KL Bulldog (after heatup!) ‘crook gudgeon’ but! :)    Loads of fun.


And here is Peter singing his celebration of his father’s life : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvT_RSVS3X4&t=8s


R-J