HUME Colville is only a couple of months shy of his 80th birthday, but the inventor and restorer is already searching for a new project.
"Yeah, why not?" he responds, when asked whether he would ever tackle a 12-tonne engine restoration again.
"I am well enough, and I am not the type of bloke who sits around wasting his time."
Indeed. When Hume is not restoring major irrigation systems or busking with his handsaw in town, he is inventing contraptions and farm devices.
But by far his most challenging and significant project recently has been the six-year restoration of the Hornsby suction gas-powered engine.
Good friend Lindsay Schultz rustled up money from government grants and donations to fund the project, while Hume put in the six years of hard labour.
The pair have most recently had the considerable pleasure of firing up the historic engine at the Benjeroop Public Hall, in the state's north.
According to Lindsay, the engine's installation marks a considerable step forward in the development of the irrigation museum.
"We would love to get our hands on more irrigation pieces if anyone wants to donate some," Lindsay says.
"We are hoping to build this into a decent-sized museum."
The engine's completion is even more poignant because its installation at the hall was delayed by a number of months owing to the floods.
"Hume had finished the engine by the beginning of the year, but the floods really set us back," says Lindsay. "We were originally hoping to be in by March."
It is not difficult to see why, despite the setback, the community was determined to see the Hornsby engine preserved for posterity.
It was shipped out from Britain in 1912, and was used as one of the earliest irrigation systems on the NSW side of the river at Benjeroop.
It burned red gum, which produced coal, and the engine ran off the gas produced by the coal.
"I remember playing on it as a kid," reflects Lindsay.
"It played a huge role in this area. It was used up until the late 1940s when one of the gas producers blew up, and then it was left on one of the local family's properties where it sat until Hume restored it."
Today marks the 100th year of the arrival of the engine from Britain, and locals are invited to help celebrate the centenary with the "opening of the engine" at the Benjeroop Public Hall at 2pm.
Those who can't make it can check out the engine, which is surrounded by a glass wall and includes its own water well, this weekend. Lindsay credits Hume's extraordinary skill in bringing the engine back to life.
"I had total faith in Hume, he is just a magician," Lindsay says.
"I was just the mouthpiece for this project, but he made it happen."
