Long assumed to be a relatively common and therefore worthless hunk of junk, Professor Eton Harrovian, Laucasian professor of Tautology at the University of Oxbridge, made an amazing discovery in January while visiting Wiruna in the course of his study tour of Australian rehabilitation facilities.
While photographing the tractor he decided to file away the rust obscuring the serial number and on obtaining and referring this to the Royal Society discovered that it was a long missing historical relic.
It seems that the tractor had been sold direct from the factory to Lord Rosse of Parsonstown and used by him in a stationary capacity to provide power to grind and polish the 72 inch mirrors of the famous 6 foot telescope as well as the lathes, drills and shapers used to fabricate metallic components of the big scope.
On completion of the telescope, it had been known that Lord Rosse had sold the tractor to an export company, but just who the tractor had been sold to or even what country it had gone to was unknown.
However, knowing where to start looking, he now discovered NSW railway freight records showing that a steam tractor had been sent from Darling Harbour by train to Bathurst in 1861, and historical records in that city refer to Cobb and Co being contracted to transport the dismantled tractor to Sofala where it was used to power the hoist and the crushing battery at the Nuggetty Gulley mine until 1880 when the gold gave out and it was sold to a local farmer for farm work.
Great interest has been shown in Ireland to this discovery and an initial approach to the Society has been made on behalf of a distinguished Irish distillery which wants to buy the relic and present it to the Irish nation.
Debate is now raging amongst Wiruna regulars about whether to sell the tractor for cash or for whisky (for medicinal purpose only, on cold nights at Wiruna)