Restoring a war-era harvester is not a hobby most would associate with a twenty-two-year-old apprentice, but for Mark Sheppard there's nothing else he'd rather do.
Mark has been tinkering since he was a toddler, and picked up his first Sunshine Harvester from a neighbouring farm when he was just seventeen.
Most would have seen the broken and battered machine as nothing more than junk but the teenager saw a piece of Australian history whose best days were yet to come. He bought the Sunshine No.2 for a few hundred dollars, reviving the Australian icon from an asbestos-filled coffin and giving it a chance at life.
"All these old things end up in a scrapyard or as a piece of furniture in a garden, there's not really many people who know about them at all," Mark said.
Since then, Mark has become an anatomist and historian for all things Sunshine Harvester. He's patched together and cleaned every piece of the combine, getting it back to full function and ready for next year's crop.
"She was on a dairy farm all of her life, and didn't get a lot of action," he said.
"I put a lot of time into the old No.2, I just finished school and I didn't have a lot of commitments.
"I cleaned two and a half kilos of rat manure out of this old girl before I could even get it to turn over; the most disgusting job of my life."
Mark's tinkering ways still not settled, he added to his harvester collection again this year. Winning a bidding war at a local clearance sale for another H.V. McKay classic, the Sunshine No.7. More than doubling his $300 initial bid, the apprentice forked out $800 to get his hands on the Australian machine.
Every patch of paint, piece of metal and missing part has a story for the young diesel mechanic. From parts salvaged from other machines, to what resources manufacturers used, Mark knows and cares about it all.
"This (No.2) was the first power take-off model they ever made and the number No.7 is the last they made before going to the Massey series."
Despite being younger and slightly more expensive, the No.7 has lived a harder life and presents more mechanical challenges that Mark is excited to take on.
"This was a contracted header, so it's seen some tougher days," he said.
"It's not far off being usable, but there's lots of really little things. I try to put a little bit of time into it whenever I can, if I get the odd day off I'll probably try and make a bit of progress."
The Sunshine Harvester is more than just a machine to Mark, it represents Australian ingenuity and a time where computers where less relied on to get a day's work done.
"These are 100 per cent Australian made and owned, they're Australian designed and made by an Australian inventor," he said.
"It's great machinery that can be patched up and put back to work, it doesn't need to rely on some computer."