The gleaming bright red shine of the Fordson Thames looks factory fresh but the gloss hides its early life in the hills near Perth where since 1950, it carted farm produce to market for the Scolaro family.

It has spent its 72-year life in the family, first as Pietro Scolaro’s workhorse on the Pickering Brook orchard and a few years later, after Pietro died, in the hands of his son, Mick.

“I had to drive the truck to get the produce to the markets (West Perth) and to the wharves (Fremantle) because after Dad died (in 1953) there was no-one else,” Mick said from his own orchard in Kelmscott.

“I was aged 15 and a half. You had to be aged 21 to get a driver’s licences for trucks this size, but they made an exception for me. But I wasn’t allowed to drive it anywhere else.”

Mick spent a relatively short 12 months on doing the restoration, saying it needed some rust repairs and a new interior.

“The engine had been overhauled at this time and the gearbox, suspension and differential were all in very good condition,” he said.

“The restoration was more about the bodywork to get rid of some earlier panel damage on the farm. It was also fitted with new timber for the flat bed that was made from furniture-grade jarrah.

“It needed new (20-inch) tyres, of course, as the old ones were badly perished.”

The Fordson ET6 has a 3.6-litre flathead V8 mated to a four-speed gearbox, without synchromesh — a driving skill that Mick says never leaves you after years of practice — and drive to the twin rear wheels.

The Ferguson tractor that sits on the back of the Fordson has also been restored to the same high standard by Mick.

It is in memory of its owner, his mother Anna, who bought the Ferguson TEF 28hp new in 1954 and used it on the farm.

“I have two of these tractors,” Mick said.

The Fordson and the two Ferguson tractors are just a hint at what Mick has in the former packing sheds on his property.

He owns a perfectly restored Rover P3 and Daimler Majestic Major, an equally immaculate Chrysler Valiant Regal from 1975, a mid-1990s Mercedes S420, and a capturing Standard Vanguard ute with a diesel engine from 1954.

Much of the work in restoring these was done by Mick, reflective of his skills and affection for all vehicles.

The orchard that Mick and his mother built subsequent to Pietro’s death was not only the nurturing field for fruit and vegetables but also for some innovative concepts now in common use.

“I became the WA agent and distributor for the Afron cherrypickers in the 1960s. These have been made in Israel for years and I first saw them in an American magazine and contacted the manufacturer,” he said.

“We soon became agents for Afron and have been for decades, only stopping in the past couple of years as we wound down our workload.

“We still have heaps of parts for some of the early Afron machines. We looked at improvements through the years. We changed a few things, such as trialling a Fiat four-cylinder car engine as the power plant instead of the noisy single-cylinder diesel engine that came with the machine.”

Mick and wife Gwenda still maintain their stone fruit orchard in Kelmscott, but after some health issues, Mick can’t be as involved as before.

He said that as they reduced their workload, many of the trees were removed.

“Now, the fruit that my wife and I and volunteers collect goes to charity,” he said.

“We simply couldn’t do that without the volunteers.” — NEIL DOWLING