This date marks the auction for items within long time Ayr resident Basil Harness’s shed.

And by the living Harry- there is some stuff there.

Basil, who turned 90 in February has had a lifetime of metal working and in that time has horded a wide collection of tools and machines, most of which will go under the hammer.

But even for those who are simply chasing that rare tool bit, a bit of history goes with every piece.

Basil has, as he puts it himself: “lived in Ayr for years”.

This can be confirmed by the fact that he worked on the famous Silver Link Burdekin Bridge.

But this is only one of a variety of jobs he has held involving metal work.

After his stint on the bridge, he partnered with blacksmith Frank Miller.

“Frank came here in 1911. He just had a forge and shoved an anvil into a tree and started work from there- no shed or nothing,” Basil said.

A gentlemen with such strong links to the Burdekin area couldn’t avoid having some connection with the sugar industry.

Basil said he was the second person to build a Cannavan cane harvester after Arthur Cannavan himself.

“Arthur had nutted out this harvester. So he built it and would then test in the paddock,” Basil said.

“I was paying a royalty charge to copy it but I’d go over to see how something was, and it would already be changed.”

He recalls the days when cane was grown for sugar content, not ease of harvesting.

“I’ve seen a crop grow 100 tonne to the acre. That’s when badila would grow as thick as your arm.”

*Full story in this week’s North Queensland Register, out now.