Before I wrote Kundela I wanted to capture the stories of the men and women who drove possibly the biggest advances in agriculture since the mechanisation of farming at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.
This is my main focus for next year and I am seeking people to help me by recording their story.
Background for the book
To my mind the thirty year period between 1960 to 1990. During this time farmers focused on minimum till practises and big advances were made in the delivery of irrigation systems that meant a dry country like Australia could maximise production on limited rainfall.
From the mid seventies Australian companies became world leaders in the design and manufacture of farming plant and almost weekly a new design or practise would emerge to make farming more viable. To support this march of progress, these companies employed and trained many skilled people to carry this knowledge to the farming community and in turn train the buyers how to get the best from their purchase.
I look back at this period with fondness for the pride and enthusiasm we had then. We in Australia were making stuff and had many talented people who could sell their skills on the world stage.
So this is a call out to anyone who ever wielded a pen, drove a tractor, setup a pump, designed a plough or partnered someone involved in the ag industry during this time to tell their story. To be part of it all just drop me an e-mail at probertconsulting @bigpond and I will send out some info to take it from there.
Since this post I have had a wonderful response from farming and farm machinery people from all across Australia. Yesterday a call from the Weekly Times who expressed interest in the project was a great confidence booster and shows me that the project has merit.
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