There's a saying one man's trash is another man's treasure and that's particularly true in the tractor collecting world.
About 300 people from across Australia made their way to Toowoomba on the weekend to find a treasure among tractor collector Ron Clancy's collection.
The auction of 140 vintage and collectable tractors was one of the largest private collection sales to take place in Australia in recent years.
In the end the best money was paid for the Model G John Deere tractor which made $16,500 and overall the sale totalled $350,000.
However, for Mr Clancy collecting tractors has never been about the money, just a love of the machines and their history.
"The reason I've got all these tractors to start with is when I started the business off for myself (17 years ago) I met a lot of people who were passionate about fixing them up and I thought well why can't I do it."
His collection started when he bought the tractors used in the tobacco industry after they became redundant when tobacco growing was outlawed in Queensland.
However the first tractor he ever restored - Farmall 100 High Clear International - is still his favourite and he couldn't bring himself to sell it.
"It was polished up and it's the one that will be going down to the Queensland Museum on display down there, they're having a Queensland collectors exhibition in Brisbane."
Some of Mr Clancy's other favourites are the one-off creations or the tractors that are a little different.
"This is a Massey Ferguson tractor diesel is a little T20 but it's all been cut down in size and they're made specifically to fit in between rows of banana's and things like that and they had to do that because there was no such thing as the smaller line of tractors that we have now."
"Here's a Massey Ferguson High Clear which is a 4500, that would be the only one of those I've ever seen in this country. Whilst it's not an old tractor it's rather unique because it was at a time when Massey Ferguson brought it in Landini and the tractor itself is half Massey and half Fiat."
Although most of the interest in the sale came from people who grew up with the older tractors or had a special connection to a certain type of tractor - including Ron Dehne who came all the way from Alice Springs to buy a County because his father had owned one years ago.
However there is also a younger generation of tractor enthusiasts coming along as well.
"In have seen in the last five years or so now there's a generation coming on for quite a lot of years no there were no younger people interested in it, but I think there's a certain amount of them now who are hanging around with their grandfathers a lot."
Mr Clancy has made the decision to wind up his spare parts business and that means his beloved collection of tractors has had to be sold but it's never been about the money.
"The monetary thing doesn't really worry me. I know some of these tractors are going to be selling for less than half what I paid for them but I paid money to keep them and keep them in the system and if I know someone is going to keep them again and they're not just going to be sent overseas or to be scrapped I'll be happy"
"I can get as much enjoyment out of going to a farm show or a heritage show or someone's farm and looking at them myself as having them myself."
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