Community & Business
28 August, 2025
Invasion of the Heritage Machines
Oakey and Kingsthorpe are abuzz with activity this week as the district hosts the National Heritage Machinery Rally and the Steaming Under the Southern Cross events.
Local heritage vehicles made their way through Oakey, stopping for a parade past the local primary schools, and Kingsthorpe on their way to the Farmfest site.
In a scene reminiscent of days gone by, old utes and mighty steam engines held up traffic on Campbell and Lorrimer Streets.
The festival is a labour of love for the volunteers and exhibitors, some of whom have travelled thousands of kilometres from interstate.
It’s a dream come true for Steaming Under the Southern Cross president Nick Geraghty, who has helped pull the event together with a motley crew assembled from local heritage groups Steaming on the Downs, TADOMS, and the Queensland Vintage Machinery Association.
“We believe we’ve had 20,000 here so far through the gates, we’re over the moon - the first four days have been absolutely brilliant,” he said.
“All the trials and tribulations we’ve had, the turbulence with move from Jondaryan... but it’s been absolutely outstanding.”
Mr Geraghty said people have come from all over Australia to volunteer and exhibit their machines at the event.
“We’ve had blokes come from Perth, truckloads of machinery come from Tasmania," he said.
“Only place we didn’t have any from was the Northern Territory.”
With the many food trucks also there, the event has the atmosphere of a Farmfest, without the long standing relationship with agriculture companies and capital behind it.
That might change with the hosts of Farmfest, Australian Community Media (ACM) observing proceedings with interest.
“ACM themselves are here and are looking at opportunities to develop the facilities to make the venue more suitable to host heritage machinery on a regular basis,” Mr Geraghty said.
While the National Rally component of the Festival is now finished, the engines will remain onsite at Kingsthorpe Park until Sunday.
“Now, we’re into the Steaming Under the Southern Cross Festival,” Mr Geraghty said.
“All the gear is here until the 31st August, live entertainment and tractor pull.”
Outside of the machinery itself, the music is another main attraction.
Local singers Kieran and Kodi Lillis of Whiskey Business were given their chance to shine, and performed at a National Heritage Rally dinner for exhibitors after the first day.
The line-up of musicians is huge - Peter Campbell, Scotty Mack, Brendon Walmsley, Tate Cole, Megan Cooper and Amanda Faulkner have already performed, while Southern Sun, Boyd Ridley, Pepper Jane, Taya Chani, 8 Ball Aitken, Melanie Martin, Sue Ray and The 78 Sound are still to come.
Earthmoving and black-smithing demonstrations take place all day, with hundreds of machines on display.
Stump pulling happens daily at 9.30am and 1.30pm, while the grand parades take place at midday and 2.30pm respectively.
For the kids, there are tractor games, with trinkets and mementos to take homes from this historic event.
