Cooktown’s Allan Walker gets his restored engine to partially fire before a fuel supply issue thwarted an attempt to start it for the first time in decades last week. Photo: Cape York Weekly.
When a fuel supply problem threw a spanner in the works of restarting a near century-old engine on 28 May, it was a look of determination, not disappointment, on the face of Cooktown resident Allan Walker.
After three years of meticulous restoration, Mr Walker went to start the 1924 Ronaldson Bros and Tippett engine for the first time in decades in front of about 50 family, friends and community members on his property on Wednesday morning, only to have the attempt thwarted by the old machine’s insatiable thirst.
The engine had undergone a loving restoration in honour of Mr Walker’s late brother, Dennis, who himself had an affinity for all things mechanical.
While the engine gave a valiant attempt to kick into life, its movement, spark and the cloud of smoke erupting from the exhaust during the moment of near-firing proved the restoration had been a success, with Mr Walker receiving applause from onlookers.
“It’s got a good spark, but it used up all the fuel in the spray pack,” he said after admitting the engine’s thirst had been the ultimate winner on the day.
“It’s turned out to be pretty hungry; it’s got a 10.5-inch piston in there, so we’re going to have to work out how to get more fuel to it to keep it running.”
Dennis’ wife, Annie Walker, was in Cooktown to help her brother-in-law start the engine and said she was incredibly proud with what he had achieved during the restoration.
“It’s unbelievable, just unbelievable,” she told Cape York Weekly.
“I know he’s put so much work into it; the boys hardly went to school; they’re all self-taught, and those three brothers (Mr Walker, Dennis and Dennis’ twin John) could pretty well build anything.”
When asked what she believed her late husband would have made of the restoration, Ms Walker smiled as she looked at the crowd inspecting the engine.
“He would have been in his element,” she said.
“There’d be plenty of advice being given, I’m sure of that.”
In a nod to the region’s gold mining past, the engine will be started three times during the Cooktown Discovery Festival on 21 June opposite the Sovereign Resort Hotel on Charlotte Street.
Annie and Allan Walker stand with the 1924 Ronaldson Bros and Tippett engine Mr Walker has loving restored in memory of his late brother and Ms Walker’s husband, Dennis ahead of it being started on 28 May. Photo: Cape York Weekly.
