General News
25 February, 2026
Historic trucks on display at Field Days
THIS year’s Wimmera Machinery Field Days will be focusing on one of the most important tools of a larger farm, that of trucks. With about 20 trucks expected to be on display from the 1930s to the 2000s from owners around the region, visitors to WMFD will get a chance to admire and inspect a significant historical variation of an essential tool on a large farm operation.
One of them will be Wail farmer, Russell Barber’s 1980 International ACCO 1810B truck, which
sounds a lot different to others with its V8 petrol motor, and despite certainly having been overtaken by newer models in size and power over its four-and-a-half decades of service, on the day the pictures for this edition of Wimmera Farmer were taken, he was still putting it to good use.
“We bought it second-hand off a neighbour down at West Wail,” he said.
“When they originally bought it, it was a four-by-two, and then they put the extra axle under the back to cart more with it.
“It was actually a big truck in its day ... it's got a gross combination of 20 tonne and a tare of 6.3, so with a trailer, you could cart about 14-odd tonne with a trailer on the back.
“But obviously, without the trailer and just a truck, you wouldn't be able to cart that – you'd be probably carting nine?
“But back in the day, it was a lot; that was a good load.”
His affection for it was obvious, as he stressed how to keep it in good condition, with him aware of every slight degradation.
“The important thing is to shed him, is to look after them,” Russell said.
“It's always been in a shed, but it's just starting to get a little bit of rust around the bottom corner there, and they always used to get it in here, in the corner of the doors as well.”
It was clear the fondness which Russell had for it.
“We just use it for odd jobs around the yard, we don't actually cart grain with it,” he said.
“We might use it for putting the seconds in when we're pickling grain or something, but we just use it for carting a bit of sand or a bit of dirt.
“At the moment, we're cleaning up around the bottom of the pine trees, so we're just using it to cart the pine cone needles and that.
“They're just so handy, even though they're not worth a lot of money, this is so handy to have.”