They got 153 Fergies and in the second year 149 but it captured everyone’s imagination,” says Roger Noakes, the new chairman of the Grey Fergie Muster mob.
“We started off with a bank account of $40, donated by 4 locals. We then approached Tony Williams Machinery, Armidale, who so generously offered to sponsor the event. Bareco is another valued sponsor. But we must not forget the Clemsons at the Bendemeer Hotel for their outstanding financial support and co-operation over the last three musters, by providing the venue for the Poet’s Breakfast and the stalls.
It’s not mandatory to own one if you live around Bendy – but it’s a bonding thing now and a special badge of pride. For the rest of the village, it’s a calling card for a new tourist badge and a tool to bring people and interest, and also a way of putting the place on the map, a place to stop or admire.”
The Grey Fergie was manufactured between 1946 and 1959. It is technically a TE 20 Ferguson. They’re grey because it was the cheapest colour to produce post WW 2. They had the first three-point linkage system manufactured by Harry Ferguson, which makes it more mobile in small area farming. The muster seeks to celebrate the important role it has played in our agricultural history.
At Wentworth, on the junction of the Darling and Murray rivers, the little tractor was made famous when both rivers flooded in 1956 and a fleet of them went to work to build levee banks which saved the town.
© Anne Newling TRC 2010
L - R Steve Bartlett Roger Noakes Anne Doak Steve Conti
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media release - march 2010
A group of Bendemeer residents has taken over the running of the Grey Fergie Muster with the aim of driving it to bigger things.
The local event group has just been made official and the formal ceremony to create the 45th committee operating under the Tamworth Regional Council community umbrella was held earlier this month.
The new group has official sanction as the event organiser for the muster of “little greys” held every three years at Bendemeer.
The muster attracts up to 1,200 people and will be held in 2012.
Inaugural chairman Roger Noakes says the main aim is to develop the muster into a long -term significant social and economic event for the village.
The muster mob has started out on their own with money they have accumulated over the last three musters. An amount of $14,620 was handed over by the local Bendemeer Community Development Committee to the new group.
About 20 locals will pitch in with event planning under the executive team of chairman Roger Noakes, secretary Anne Doak, vice chairman Mark Symons and treasurer Steve Conti.
Mr Noakes says everyone will get a job geared to organising the next muster on March 24-25 in 2012. One of the first ones for him is to create a new website before the end of April.
TRC corporate and governance director Steve Bartlett says the group has a new energy and a single focus on promoting the muster to concentrate on building on the success of the first three musters. Tamworth Regional Council will offer support through its event management team to help the Fergie friends do what they have to make the next Bendy bash a big one.
“We want to develop it into a sustainable event and by having a focus on creative input to make a positive and coordinated structure around it, we can make it grow,” Mr Noakes said. “We are forever grateful for the support given to us for the first muster in 2003 by the then Parry Shire Council and this wonderful support has been continued under the banner of the Tamworth Regional Council.
“We will be looking at more coordinated types of attractions that echo that type of rural history and heritage, such as working dogs and sheep and tractor treks, old machinery and add them to the muster to support the Fergie theme.”
BACKGROUND
The first Grey Fergie Muster was in 2003 and came about when Bendy resident and sometime bush poet Winston Doak wanted to celebrate the 50th birthday of his Grey Fergie so Lee Martin suggested they have a party and invite the rest of Australia – along the way they thought they could create a record for the most number of Fergies in one place.
