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Restoration Projects

History of ‘Highways Department Northfield Depot Heritage Group’

In 1980 a small group of men formed the ‘Highways Department Northfield Depot Heritage Group’. From this date it tried to meet at least four times per year, continuing until around 1990.

Their main brief was to preserve Department plant and machinery items no longer used in building the roads across South Australia. They were concerned that many of the documents, operator manuals and machinery brochures could be lost. Most large outdated machinery had a high residual value and was sold by the Department, but the group kept their eyes on some pieces. For most of the items owned by the Dept, the only remaining record will be photos and some of these manuals. Some of these are also of value for any future owners undertaking restoration, repairs or servicing.

Essentially there were just three members. Alex Ide, until he retired around 1988, Kelvin Halstead who died in service around 1984 and Harald Stamer, was also active later (after Kelvin's demise), until the wind down of the workshops commencing early 1990's, when he retired also. They were all Northfield employees. Alex Ide was the Supervising Drafting Officer in charge of the Mechanical Drawing Office, working for Roland Earl when he was in charge of the Mechanical Design office. He was interested in old stationary engines and was also building a live steam model rail locomotive. Kelvin Halstead was Assistant Workshop Superintendent who had fully restored a Scripps-Booth vintage car, Harald Stamer was the Supervisor, Bitumen Repair Shop, and a long serving dedicated employee.

For some of the restoration projects assistance came from others in the workshops. When the old Caterpillar 30 Crawler Tractor (see Heritage Objects), was being restored, a number of volunteer working bees were held to work on the project. They began after hours at 4.00pm on pre-arranged days, lasting some 2-3 hours. About 10-15 employees supported these as a semi-social event. This was the only such project that attracted that level of popular support. Much of the support from the Department was informal, mainly 'providing' materials as needed. There was also an unwritten agreement that if a lull in departmental work occurred, staff could then work on a project of this type.

Personnel, such as Plant Inspectors in the normal course of their duties, spotted objects suitable for restoration such as the Cat 30 tractor. Because of its age, and the fact that the Department had used this type of tractor, 'approval' was obtained to buy it for a nominal sum (approximately $200) and transport it to Northfield for later restoration, hopefully to full operational condition. This was achieved and gave much personal satisfaction to those involved seeing it operating under its own power. When the Department sold off the Cat 30’s, they would have retained substantial value, but now many years later the value of this unit was negligible. The immediate residual value was the major barrier to retaining much equipment when the Department was disposing of it.

In 1991 a catalogue of the Historical Items Collection was commenced. It brought together a collection of approximately 137 items classified as having historical significance to the Department of Road Transport. The objects in this collection date from the early 1900s to the late 1970s. It was amassed by a group of people in the former Plant and Mechanical Section of the Highways Department, and included Roland Earl and Lyall Brumfield. It is from this collection that the items for the ‘Roads Through History’ project have been chosen. They represent a cross section of road making and plant equipment used in South Australia since the inception of Local Boards of Main Roads. Other non-road items in the collection have been transferred to relevant museums, such as the Maritime Museum and the Australian ElectricTransport Museum.

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