 
The Bulldozer as it was many years ago and as it is today.
The two women drivers are unknown.
The dozer is being set up as an entry statement to the Kendenup Townsite.
Glen Hawker’s Bulldozer
This bulldozer (a Caterpillar D7 4T model 1942) was on the wharf in Sydney in 1945, on its way to the war in the Pacific. When hostilities ceased tractors of any sort were in desperately short supply after the war, as was fuel, and just about everything. The competition to get hold of this one must have intense and it was only secured through the help of Mr. Arthur Watts M.L.A. Glen Hawker had very little money and needed a long-term loan from the Western Australian Government Machinery pool, which was set up for this purpose. Unfortunately the legislation for this type of loan did not make provision for heavy machinery like this and long delays and frustrations occurred as attempts were made to get the legislation changed. And as the delays continued so did the chances of loosing the bulldozer to somebody who could lay their hands on the necessary ₤5,000. The section on Kendenup written by Mr. FW Rowe in the book “Plantagenet rich and Beautiful” sets out these details but doesn’t mention how the finance was actually raised. Local word of mouth has long had it that to break the impasse and to secure the bulldozer three local farmers advanced the purchase money to Glen as payment in advance for clearing work to be done in the near future. In retrospect this was a generous and far sited action on their part and the district owes them a vote of thanks. They were Mr. WW Smith, Mr. Walter DePledge and we think Mr. JT Moncrieff.
When the bulldozer finally arrived here in August 1646 Glen then had an urgent need to earn some money with it to pay for fuel and wages etc. This meant that his benefactors had to wait for some time before the already paid for work on their farms could be carried out. Strangely enough one of the first contract jobs Glen had with the bulldozer was to demolish the old Kendenup Development Company’s dehydrator building, then owned by the Mt Barker Cooperative, the pushed up mounds of bricks and masonry are still there today on Lot 1008 Carbarup Road.
From 1946 to approximately 1960, this machine worked full time clearing and dam sinking around Kendenup and occasionally in Tambellup. It was the first privately owned bulldozer in the Shire of Plantagenet and for a few years the only one so there was no shortage of work for it. Glen never owned a low loader to move it around, so it usually had to walk the hard way between jobs, he was always very careful with it and its maintenance which is why it managed to clock up so many working hours. Several times it was stripped down to the last nut and bolt, then rebuilt ready for the next clearing season it was his pride and joy. Some of the operators who drove for Glen in these period were: - George Etheridge, Don Etheridge, Vin Costello, Percy Beck, Les Atchison and Mack Yates. Gradually more modern machines made their appearance in the district, these were fitted with hydraulically operated blades, mounted rippers and power shift transmissions all of which gave them a tremendous advantage over the cable operated blade and trailed ripper that his machine was fitted with. It’s hard to imagine now, just how time consuming and frustrating it must have been hitching and un hitching a trailed cable operated ripper and how many times this had to be done when digging a dam. So from 1960 onwards the contract work was wound down and it was used to clear Glen’s own Farm on View Range road. During this period a crack developed in the engine block and the radiator water would seep into the sump overnight. The first step then, in the morning starting procedure was to ease the sump plug open and carefully let the water out until oil started to appear, then tighten the plug and get on with the business of starting the starter motor. In 1977 the bulldozer was badly bogged on the farm of Son in law Lionel Downes. For one and a half years it sat there with the motor partly submerged before it could be dragged out. Things were never the same after this, the motor and the tracks were replaced, but the years finally caught up with it and it was eventually sold to Garry Wilson of Torbay. Later it was sold again to Allan Bowden of Corrigan and James Erskine of Mt Barker. We are fortunate that these gentlemen appreciated the importance of this machine and made no attempt to strip it for parts.
In March 1998 many Kendenup residents past and present, donated funds, and we were able to buy it at auction. Our purpose in displaying it here is to preserve something of this period in Kendenup’s past when farm development was going ahead rapidly and changing from the more intensive apple growing and dairying of the early days, to the extensive wool and grain growing of today.
All who knew him, as a good neighbour and a community worker, held Glen Hawker in high regard. It is a tribute to Glen that so many people have helped to have his bulldozer displayed here, where it did so much of its work.
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