Historic steam engine ‘Bella’ was moved from the Shepparton Heritage Centre to Emerald Bank earlier this year.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
The bonds that had long bound Bella rigid have been released.
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Shepparton’s famed 129-year-old steam engine beauty is now ready for the next phase of her reanimation.
“All the parts that were welded up so the kids couldn’t hurt themselves have been freed up and are moving,” Lloyd Mawson, who is leading the restoration, said.
“The cladding’s been ripped off the boiler and the investigator has said it’s in better condition than he thought it would be for its age.”
Bella, who was built in Leeds, England, in 1896 and gifted to the city of Shepparton by Robert Colville in 1963 after she had helped build Peter Ross-Edwards Causeway and other infrastructure in the Goulburn Valley, became a piece of play equipment enjoyed by energetic climbing children at the John Pick Playground.
The engine was once a bright, bold red, but Lloyd Mawson plans to find out what Bella’s original colour was and restore her to original.
She was a visual spectacle and a stage for role-playing kids pretending they were driving her along Victoria Park Lake’s foreshore for 19 years, before new safety laws in the early 1990s prompted Shepparton City Council to transfer her to the Shepparton Historical Society.
In May this year, she was moved from the rear of the Shepparton Heritage Centre to Emerald Bank via crane and truck, where Mr Mawson is creating the Shepparton Vintage Machinery Museum.
He and his team have started gathering quotes from people who can get the steam engine back to working condition.
“Once we get the quotes in, we’ll apply for some grants to fund major repairs,” Mr Mawson said.
Funds from a Bendigo Bank Greater Shepparton Connected Communities grant and a donation from W.H. Young & Sons totalling $18,000 got Bella’s restoration started initially.
Mr Mawson invites further donations from anyone keen to be a part of breathing new life into Bella.
He can be contacted on 0418 577 424.
The News will continue to follow Bella’s restoration.
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