September, 2008, marked 60 years since the first K.L. Bulldog tractor came off the production line at Springvale, Victoria.

 Announced to the public in late 1945, Kelly & Lewis formed “K.L. Tractors Ltd.” to manufacture a tractor ‘of similar pattern’ to the pre-War Lanz hot bulb ignition crude oil burning tractors, which Kelly & Lewis sold from 1934 until the outbreak of World War Two. The immediate post-War period saw the government of the time offer substantial ‘start-up funds and incentives’ to encourage local tractor production which, of course, were to be repaid when profits flowed again. 

Not wanting to split up all available machine/tools at its disposal, the go