Extract from ABC News
Mervyn Polzin has spent a lifetime collecting old cars, tractors and trucks. (ABC Southern Queensland: Brandon Long)
Lifelong grazier Mervyn Polzin knows he is at the "end of the line", but he isn't sad about it.
On a quiet rise at Meringandan, just outside Toowoomba in southern Queensland, the 78-year-old is letting go of his life's passion.
Just weeks ago, hundreds of pieces of machinery were scattered across the paddocks of his family property, Greenview, their steel skins dulled by decades of work and weather.
Mervyn would rap his knuckles on the bonnets of old American pick-up trucks, pleased with the solid thud.
Mervyn Polzin's family has run cattle at Greenview north of Toowoomba since 1953. (ABC Southern Queensland: Brandon Long)
But now, almost all his tractors, trucks, pick-ups and machines are in new hands.
"There comes a time in life when you have to make a hard decision,"he said.
Mervyn Polzin says he caught the "machinery bug" more than 40 years ago. (ABC Southern Queensland: Brandon Long)
Passion for decades
Mervyn jokes he was "born under a cow" and cattle were his first love, but it did not take long for the "machinery bug" to take hold.
His fascination started with just one small steel-wheeled machine bought more than 40 years ago.
"We thought it would be just good to have one little tractor," Mervyn said.
"But then the bug gets you. It's a bad bug when you get it.
"Like a little schoolboy — when you see something good, you want a good lolly or something — we bought it."
Mervyn collected more than 250 tractors, trucks, utes and farm machines with quiet devotion over four decades.
Last weekend, that turned into a spectacle as engines rattled to life and more than 800 people arrived at Greenview, filling Mervyn's property with noise and movement.
More than 800 people attended Mervyn Polzin's clearance sale outside Toowoomba. (ABC Southern Queensalnd: Dan McCray)
New homes for old machines
Some came from as far as central New South Wales and some arrived with trailers, telegraphing their intentions to take home a piece of Mervyn's collection.
One of Mervyn's mates, Peter Cameron, said he was no stranger to clearing sales around Toowoomba, but this one was "exceptional".
"It's a hell of a lot and you'd have to have some sort of sadness in your face seeing it all go," he said.
Peter Cameron says the crowd that came to the clearance sale was "exceptional". (ABC Southern Queensland: Dan McCray)
Stoic and determined, Mervyn followed the auctioneers to as many of the 252 listed lots as he could, at times chiming in with a comment as to why a particular piece warranted special attention.
Every single piece sold on auction day.
However, not everyone came to the sale to buy; some just wanted to bathe in the nostalgia.
"It's an era that will be gone soon,"Theresa Erbacher said.
"I'm just really happy that people are keeping this stuff to go on for the next generation," her cousin Mary Byrne said.
Mary Byrne (left) and Theresa Erbacher say they went to the clearing sale to soak up the nostalgia of old machinery. (ABC Southern Queensland: Dan McCray)
The sale was not just about machines but the quiet arithmetic of aging; what to keep and what to let go.
Mervyn had to ask himself that question last year, after his brother and companion on the land for decades died.
A separate quad bike accident left Mervyn unconscious with nine broken ribs.
"I think it's time to face life and just take it easy," he said.
Last man standing
The Polzin family story at Greenview stretches back to 1953.
On a windy day, Mervyn wanders through an old dairy that speaks of early mornings and milk cans.
Mervyn Polzin has a special connection with his animals, including his dog Brutus. (ABC Southern Queensland: Brandon Long)
While Mervyn is downsizing his beef herd, he is keeping his bull, Heinrich, along with a dozen other cattle.
"The young calves … they're my family," he said.
Some have even shared his love of country music.
"I'd sit on the trough and the one steer would come up," he said.
"I'd blow in his nostrils, push his eyelids shut with my nose and I'd sing in his ear.
"He liked Wings of a Dove and Royal Telephone, and he would just go to sleep on my knee."
But Mervyn is a bachelor and with no heirs waiting in the wings, one day the rest of his property will be sold.
"I'm the last man here now,"he said.
Mervyn has already decided half the proceeds of a future sale will go to St Andrew's Toowoomba Hospital and half to the Royal Flying Doctor Service, having personal experience of the value of their care.
"The greatest thing you can do in life is help somebody else," he said.
Mervyn Polzin made the "hard decision" to sell his vast collection of tractors, trucks, pick-ups and machines. (ABC Southern Queensland: Brandon Long)
As he watched others claim the machines that once defined his days, there were no regrets.
"I've had my time with them," Mervyn said. "It's been a good life."
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