DARRYL Melano has always had a love of all things machinery – that’s probably why he turned that obsession into a business – but did you know that, for the past 15 odd years, Darryl has been collecting one of his other loves – Lanz Bulldog Tractors!?
The Lanz Bulldog was a tractor manufactured by Heinrich Lanz AG in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Production started in 1921 and various versions of the Bulldog were produced up to 1960.
To mark the 100 years since the start of manufacturing the Bulldogs, Hamilton Pastoral Museum is planning a special weekend, and Mr Melano has jumped on board.
Now this event is going to be big – maybe not all the tractors, but certainly the event will be!
It appears that those people who are obsessed with tractors will come from everywhere, with tractors coming from Queensland, South Australia, Western Australian, New South Wales and Gippsland.
The 100 years of Lanz Bulldog Tractors will be held on the weekend of the October 8 and 9, and there will be five grand parades each day: 11am – 10-20 horse power Lanz Bulldog Tractors; 12 noon – 20-30 horse power; 1pm – 30-40 horse power; 2pm – 40 and over horse power; and 3pm – Kelly and Lewis Bulldog Tractors.
Registrations of tractors will start from 8am on Saturday, October 8, and gates will open to the public at 10am. There will be a vintage tractor pull and a dinner on the Saturday night – all are welcome, but dinner registrations must be in by 12 midday Saturday. Guest speakers include Tim Bollwels from Wallop, Len Grass from Wunghnu and Brian Harmer from Avoca.
For more information, please contact the Hamilton Pastoral Museum on 1800 807 056 or check out their Facebook page.
This event is not to be missed by all those interested in vintage machinery.
History of the Lanz Bulldogs
The Lanz Bulldog was a tractor manufactured by Heinrich Lanz AG in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Production started in 1921 and various versions of the Bulldog were produced up to 1960, one of them being the Lanz Bulldog D 9506.
John Deere purchased Lanz in 1956 and started using the name "John Deere Lanz" for the Lanz product line. A few years after the Bulldog was discontinued the Lanz name fell into disuse. The Lanz Bulldog was one of the most popular German tractors, with over 220,000 of them produced in its long production life. The name "Bulldog" is widely used in Germany as a synonym for tractors.
In 1945, K.L. Distributors (a subsidiary of Kelly and Lewis Engineering) announced that they would be producing a tractor of similar build to the German made Lanz Bulldog tractor – of which they had been sole distributer since 1933.
The Lanz 35 horse power "N" model proved the most popular of the Lanz tractors sold in Australia, so Kelly & Lewis had initial plans already under way before the outbreak of WW2 to build a copy of this tractor in Australia. Design work on the K.L. tractor was started before the end of WW2, various Blueprint drawings such as the original May 1945 crankshaft drawing survive today in preservation.
The initial idea was to build an assembly factory close to the existing Kelly & Lewis works at Springvale, sub-contracting as much component parts as possible to outside contractors. Parts were to supposedly arrive ready for assembly at Springvale, but supply and faulty parts was an ongoing problem which was never overcome and contributed to the demise of the whole K.L. tractor project.
The first completed production K.L. tractor came off the Springvale production line on 21st of September 1948, and was completed just in time for display at the Melbourne Show.
An official opening was held on March 16, 1949, which made newspaper headlines (not front page). The K.L. tractor was so close a copy of the pre-war Lanz "N" 35hp that over 90% of parts would readily interchange, the main difference being the rpm lifted from 540 to 600 on the K.L tractor, this increased horse power available to a maximum of 44 on the belt.
