The Oberon Museum's Robinson Dray was a sad heap of rotting wood in 2023, and a decision had to be made about its future. There was too much local history in this once mighty workhorse to take it to the dump.

Right from the start there were some doubts about whether its restoration could be undertaken. A number of major issues had to be resolved before we could be confident of saving the dray. Firstly all 26 felloes were rotted out and needed to be replaced. If I could find the timber without having it freshly sawn and green, I then had the problem of accurately sawing both sides of the felloe to the various radii of the wheels. If that was achieved, I would have to use traditional wheelwright skills to hot shoe the rim.

Things started to fall into place when I was offered large dimension timber from the demolition of Timber Industries Sawmill, and, when a trial of an industrial water cutter produced a perfect felloe. Only with these things sorted did I have any confidence of completing the restoration.

For those unfamiliar with dray jargon, a "felloe" is a segment of the outer wheel.

Most of the iron work was in satisfactory condition, it just needed to be derusted and oiled. However nearly all of the heavy duty woodwork except the front axle had to be replaced, so after the wheels were satisfactorily hot shoed, the rest was just carpentry with no plans and only minimal templates. As a result plenty of thinking and patience was needed, however with only a few setbacks, it all came together. The end result was never intended to be a new looking dray, rather an old dray back in working condition. The iron work is 110 years old and every piece made by a blacksmith, and the recycled timber which itself was over 70 years old, was suitably aged.

The persistence has been worth it. The dray is truly heavy duty and, as it stands nearly 1.8m high and 5m long, is an impressive piece of our local history. It will be stored under cover and, without having to again carry 20 tonnes of wool over rough local roads, will probably see another 100 years.

Lots of horses to pull lots of wool.