Ian M. Johnston's interest in tractors was kindled at an early age when, as a young schoolboy, he was reared in the midst of a farming community located on the east coast of Scotland. In 1953, at age seventeen, he departed for a two-year jackerooing experience in Australia, with the intention of returning to Edinburgh where he had been enrolled in a tertiary agricultural college. But following two exhilarating years in the Australian bush, he acquainted his parents of his intention to remain in Australia and establish a life in the country he had grown to love.