The Dardanup Heritage Show, wheeltractor display - with the two front rows occupied by Chamberlain tractors. 2009 is the 60th anniversary year of the first Chamberlain tractor coming off the production line at Welshpool, Perth, Western Australia. The Chamberlains were all built in a former WW2 military base. At one time, Chamberlains had the biggest foundry in Western Australia, capable of some very sizeable castings. They also had some serious amounts of machine shop equipment. One thing they couldn't afford, was expensive Swiss gear-finishing machines - and as a result, all Chamberlains were noted for their whining transmission gearsets, due to the machining marks left in the gears, which were then hardened, and which created the gearset whining, when run at any speed.

The front row of the Chamberlain Tractor line-up at the Dardanup Heritage Museum display on 1st March 2009, showing a wide range of the older Chamberlain models produced between 1949 and the early 1970's.

This picture give a good view of the Chamberlain tractor line-up, with the two front rows being all Chamberlains. The rows to the rear left are other brands of wheeltractor, graders, rollers and assorted items - and the equipment to the right rear is the Caterpillar display area.

A closer look at the antique Chamberlain tractors. There are numerous models in this line-up, built from 1949 to the early 1970's, with power plants ranging from Chamberlains original Kero and Diesel, horizontally opposed twin cylinder engines, to GM 2 stroke diesels, to English Meadows and Perkins diesels.

A close look at the second line of Chamberlain products. The two tractors closest to the camera are road-going, fully road-registered tractors belonging to members of the Chamberlain 9G Tractor Club. These people tour all over Australia, using the tractors as their primary transport, and camping out at night. Some of them tow small trailers with camping gear and supplies in them, others have back-up regular vehicles along.

This is an extremely rare Chamberlain 2000 model, 4WD loader. Powered by a 112HP Perkins 6-372 (a slightly bored-out 6-354), it was produced from 1971 to 1980. Only about 250 of these loaders were built in total. It weighs around 10 tonnes, and was fitted with a 2 cu yd bucket as standard. It used an Allison transmission, Girlock disc brakes, Vickers hydraulics, Twin Disc axles, and it was a good performer - to the extent that Cat put out a "competitive machine" brochure on it, comparing it to the Cat 930.

This is a highly modified Chamberlain Tractor that has had its chassis "stretched", and fitted with a Rootes TS3 (Commer "Knocker") engine, for tractor pulling.

All the specific details of the Rootes TS3 engine, and the "Knocker" tractor pull tractor.

A Chamberlain "Super 70" that has had its chassis stretched, and a Cummins 903 V8 fitted, specifically for tractor pulling. This unit looks very neat, and sounds good.

The Chamberlain "Super 70" that has been repowered with a 903 Cummins V8 for tractor pulling.

The two, highly modified, Chamberlain tractor pullers, side by side.

Two Chamberlain "Super 70" tractors, hooked together, using a locally built "Pederick" brand tandem hitch. This method of coupling gives a tremendous increase in traction and power to the ground, and was very popular for a short period of a few years in the late 1960's and early 1970's, as a method of reducing labour costs - whilst at the same time, increasing traction, and the ability to pull much wider tillage equipment. When you saw one of these units pulling several disc ploughs hooked together in the early 1970's, it was an impressive sight. The production of 4WD tractors such as the Steiger and Versatile saw the rapid end of these tandem hitches.