Tractor collector sells up after ‘not terribly flash’ health diagnosis

Taieri Historical Society and Museum president Neil Gamble stands in front of the Outram Courthouse on the museum grounds in Outram. Photo / Shawn McAvinue

A Taieri man with a rich history in the farming sector has been looking at life differently since his doctor gave him a dire diagnosis. Neil Gamble talks to Otago Daily Times’ Shawn McAvinue about threshing mills, painting tractors and a new way of living.

Neil Gamble (78) said his health had been better.

“It’s not terribly flash, to be fair.”

He had aneurysms on his aorta. An aneurysm had swollen to 65mm-wide, more than four times its usual size.

“If it bursts, I’ve got up to 10 minutes to live.”

The diagnosis more than two years ago had changed the way he thought about life.

He learned at Dunedin Hospital this month, to fix the complex issue would require an eight-hour operation, four surgeons and the importation of a part to implant.

“It should work.”

Since the diagnosis, he had been selling his classic vehicles but there were some exceptions.

A pink and grey 1966 Bedford J1 tow truck was being kept in the family and his beloved blue 1971 VW Beetle was not for sale.

“That will go to the grave with me.”

He was also selling the vintage tractors he had restored.

“Tractors have been my life.”

Gamble was born and raised in the small town of Momona on the Taieri Plain.

“I’ve moved three times and the furthest was 3km away.”

His parents bought a 20-ha farm in Momona in 1928 to run dairy cows, horses, and pigs, and grow crops.

When horses started to be replaced by tractors, his father Les bought a threshing mill, traction engine, chaff cutter, and stationary baler and launched the contracting business, L J Gamble.

The 7-ton Clayton and Shuttleworth threshing mill was built about 1900 in England and was on display at the Taieri Historical Society and Museum in Outram.

Neil was recently made a life member of the society.

He had been volunteering on the society committee for 33 years and had been president for the past 18 years.

A reason for his longevity in the top role was his depth of knowledge about farming on the Taieri.

About once a week someone called the society, many from overseas, wanting to map their family history on the Taieri.

He often could share first-hand information.

A 1966 Bedford J1 tow truck, which Neil Gamble has owned since 2021. Photo / Shawn McAvinue

He recalled riding his bicycle around the Taieri, following his father as he worked, and enjoying listening to the farmers.

“I can still hear them, the way they talked and the stories they told.”

Due to his father’s health issues, he left school in 1961, aged 15, and the contracting business became LJ Gamble & Son.

Since leaving school, he expanded the family dairy farm to 60ha.

In the mid-1990s, a local tractor dealership approached him to paint trade-in tractors because they were struggling to sell them as is.

He had considered restoring tractors as a hobby but the falling milk price spurred a decision to take it on as a side-earner.

After eight years, he was restoring tractors for every dealership on the Taieri and was restoring a tractor a week.

“It got so big I had to pay someone to milk my cows.”

A 1945 McCormick Deering W4, bought new by Charlie and Bill Gamble, of Riverside, Mosgiel, sold in the 1950s and bought back by Charlie’s son George in the early 1990s and painted by Neil Gamble in 1993. Photo / Shawn McAvinue

His wife Chris left her job to take over the dairy farm and began selecting the genetics to develop the Mayfield Holstein Friesian stud.

“I just kept painting.”

They decided to sell the farm in the late 1990s so he could “firm up” his tractor painting.

They bought a smaller neighbouring block and converted a wool shed to a “great big spray booth”.

“I painted 550 tractors in the end.”

The tractor painting was getting “unworldly” and he gave the business away.

At the age of 62, he started working full-time as a sales rep for Ambreed, now called CRV, selling dairy genetics and services.

“It was my first official job, I was self-employed up to then.”

Going from a farmer paying for all your expenses to being provided with a work phone, computer, ute and uniform was “like a dream”.

“I thought I was in heaven.”

The best year he had in sales included more than 30,000 straws of semen to Otago farmers.

“I was driving 50,000km a year.”

A Clayton and Shuttleworth threshing mill on display at the Taieri Historical Society and Museum in Outram. Photo / Shawn McAvinue

He was 74 when he finished working for CRV.

“It was a lot of fun. I liked dealing with the people and keeping them happy.”

He now works as the distributor in Otago and Southland for Power Up Lubricants, between volunteering at the society.

The society was launched about 55 years ago.

Historic buildings moved to the museum grounds including the Outram Courthouse in 1974 and Berwick Church in 1997.

The society had recently spent $60,000 painting the courthouse, a caretaker’s house and an exterior wall of the church.

He was fascinated by the history of the Taieri and how much of it was once a swamp.

One of his favourite historic tales on the Taieri was about a couple of European settlers living in Woodside and short of food.

The option of walking to Mosgiel for supplies was out due to a swollen river.

Consequently, the couple waded in waist-deep water for two days to a Māori settlement in Henley.

“They only just made it, they nearly died on the way.”

People in the Māori community saw them coming and rescued them in a canoe and took them to their home, to feed and nurse them to good health.

“That’s what it was like and we forget that.”