General News
24 July, 2026
Flashback: Friday, July 25, 1986
This week in 1986, the Australian Wheatboard gave Longerenong College a 90-horsepower diesel farm tractor made in Russia.
This week in 1986, the Australian Wheatboard gave Longerenong College a 90-horsepower diesel farm tractor made in Russia.
Australian Wheat Board chairman Clinton Condon said, “At present, Australia’s trade is running 50 to one against the Soviet Union.
“A thousand million dollars a year of primary produce goes to the USSR; in the other direction, the figure is about $20 million.
“Our part of this trade was to buy 38 Belarus tractors and 12 Lada Niva four-wheel-drive vehicles from the Soviet Union earlier this year.”
Ten of the tractors went to state bulk handling authorities, with the other tractors proposed at the time to go to 28 agricultural colleges around Australia in contribution to their teaching programs.
National marketing manager of Belarus Tractors Pty Ltd, Drew Posthuma, told the Mail-Times that Belarus was the world’s biggest agricultural tractor manufacturer.
“They make 600,000 tractors a year, equaling the total from the US, France and the UK,” he said.
“Through putting this product before the Australian public we will help to correct the imbalance of trade with Russia.”