Farmer News
1 September, 2026
Steam engines make their way home
A PAIR of steam ploughing engines constructed by John Fowler and Co around 146 years ago are making their way back to their original home in Tasmania.
Camperdown’s Laurie Voutier had been their caretaker for a number of years, saying he had been contacted by a museum in Tasmania to receive them as part of a display as those types of engines worked on Tasmanian fields.
Engines of this type were used for cultivation, land preparation and clearing, stump-pulling, drainage works, dam and irrigation channel digging, dam cleaning and general farm construction work until steam power became less popular in the 1930s.
“They’re beautiful engines,” Mr Voutier said.
“They’re sister engines number 19 and 20.
“They used to pull a big plough – one’s right-handed and the other’s left handed – so they pulled a plough through a paddock and when it goes through it tips and the other one pulls it the other way.
“They’re pretty amazing.”
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Steam engines were first introduced into Australia around 1860, less than 10 years after steam power became popular in England.
John Fowler and Co, the company which built the engines, was one of the most popular brands of steam engine from the 1880s until the 1930s.
Australia was one of the major export markets for steam engines such as the two now headed for Tasmania.
The engines were loaded onto trucks with both engines to be shipped over and given a thorough clean before they make their debut at the museum.
Mr Voutier said he felt sad to see them go but was pleased to know they will be enjoyed by those keen on agricultural history.
“I’m happy to see they’re going back to where they came from,” he said.
