Former farmer’s vintage machinery collection includes 1940s Fowler VF bulldozer

Robin Hill with his restored late 1940s Fowler VF bulldozer. Photo / Catherine Fry

Robin Hill was born in London during World War II and had his first taste of rural life when his family moved to The Fens in Cambridgeshire to avoid the bombing.

He embraced the farming life at a young age.

At 5, he was breeding and fattening rabbits to sell to the universities and by 8, he was fattening pigs to sell.

“When I left school, I went into arable farming working for a contractor growing wheat, barley and sugar beet, and spent many hours behind the wheel of a tractor,” Hill said.

His parents immigrated to New Zealand in 1961, and the 20-year-old came with them.

“We were part of an immigration scheme that required you to work on a farm for two years, so we went dairy farming.”

A man’s mission

Hill’s mission was to buy a new car, marry a Kiwi girl and buy a farm.

Using an inheritance from his grandmother and saving hard, he bought a new 1963 Chrysler Valiant, married the office girl, Margaret, from the car dealership, and they bought their first dairy farm.

“I retired from the physical side of farming when I was 58 and started collecting tractors, which then seemed to breed overnight,” Hill, from the Hauraki District, said.

One of the vehicles in his extensive collection is a late 1940s British-made Fowler VF bulldozer, designed for general bulldozer work.

Front of the Fowler VF bulldozer. Photo / Catherine Fry

He bought it from a dealer and describes it as “rusty but running, but the track gear had had it”.

The track gear was replaced with custom-made steel runners, but the original tracks are still fitted.

The heavy cast iron chassis and body were cleaned up and painted in Brunswick green.

A point of interest

Robin Hill has an extensive vintage machinery collection. Photo / Catherine Fry

The Fowler VF has a single nine-inch cylinder, two six-inch pistons and a 350-pound flywheel.

A point of interest for the VF is that it requires a manual crank start.

“I use a piece of blotting paper soaked in potassium nitrate [saltpetre] and then dried, as a fuse.

“I roll the blotting paper into a cylinder shape, light it and blow it out.

“Then I insert the glowing fuse into the fuse holder in the cylinder head of the engine.”

The next stage of smoothly and consistently rotating the manual crank handle, engaging with a flywheel on the engine to make it start, takes brute strength even for a young man.

Hill is an avid tractor trekker and has seen a great deal of New Zealand with other Hauraki Vintage Machinery Club members.